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Though pundits are still struggling to understand it, the rise of Donald Trump shouldn’t have surprised anyone. For the pioneering German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), it would have been entirely predictable, a classic example of the politics of charisma.

Weber posited that modern political systems are normally rational and bureaucratic. They are managed by trained professionals who deliver public services according to a set of clear rules. They should operate like a reliable machine – an “iron cage,” as Weber put it.

But what if the machine breaks down? What if securities regulators fail to prevent a financial meltdown, if hospital administrators fail to deliver services that veterans have earned, if border guards (in both America and Europe) fail to staunch an influx of migrants, if diplomats fail to stop chaos in the Middle East, if economic planners fail to revive a stalled economy? Weber assumed that bureaucrats were disinterested career civil servants, but now they commonly do favors for the corporations they are supposed to regulate, and are then rewarded with executive jobs with the same corporations. What if the iron cage becomes a revolving door?

Then there is a crisis of public confidence in the governmental machine, and citizens will seek the polar opposite of a bureaucrat – a charismatic leader. As Weber defined them, “ ‘natural’ leaders – in times of psychic, physical, economic, ethical, religious, political distress – have been neither officeholders nor incumbents of an ‘occupation.’ ” They are antiestablishment inspirational figures driven by a kind of divine (or diabolical) madness....

Where bureaucrats collect salaries and politicians solicit campaign contributions, Weber argued that “charisma quite deliberately shuns the possession of money and of pecuniary income per se.” The charismatic leader may be a St. Francis committed to poverty, or he may be “a pirate genius” who has already stolen all the money he will ever need. Either way, he impresses his followers because he seems to have no mercenary motives. St. Francis and Donald Trump have only one quality in common, but it is crucially important: neither can be bought.

AZGrizFan wrote:Charisma? That word is way down the list of words I'd use to describe Trump.

AZGrizFan wrote:Charisma? That word is way down the list of words I'd use to describe Trump.

kalm wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:Charisma? That word is way down the list of words I'd use to describe Trump.

Why?

Ivytalk wrote:

kalm wrote:
Why?

Because then you'd have to describe every narcissistic, rich, blustering, handjob politician as charismatic. That's why.

Chizzang wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: Because then you'd have to describe every narcissistic, rich, blustering, handjob politician as charismatic. That's why.

Seems legit...
BTW: You just descried the entire spectrum of American politics

AZGrizFan wrote:

Chizzang wrote:

Seems legit...
BTW: You just descried the entire spectrum of American politics

I don't think of Trump as a politician. He's just a rude, attention whore. I do realize, however, that the ven diagram of those two groups has a LARGE overlap....

BDKJMU wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
I don't think of Trump as a politician. He's just a rude, attention whore. I do realize, however, that the ven diagram of those two groups has a LARGE overlap....

And that's why he's leading in the polls. A large chunk of primary voters don't to vote for anyone who is a politician..they especially don't want anyone who is an inside the beltway politician..

I kind of like Kasich. But I cringed when he touted his 18 years in DC + 7 years governor. He was touting being a career politician, a negative, and even worse, he was touting being an inside the beltway politician, a BIG negative...

Ivytalk wrote:

kalm wrote:
Why?

Because then you'd have to describe every narcissistic, rich, blustering, handjob politician as charismatic. That's why.

kalm wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: Because then you'd have to describe every narcissistic, rich, blustering, handjob politician as charismatic. That's why.

Except Trump is somewhat unique in his appeal.

kalm wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: Because then you'd have to describe every narcissistic, rich, blustering, handjob politician as charismatic. That's why.

Except Trump is somewhat unique in his appeal.

kalm wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: Because then you'd have to describe every narcissistic, rich, blustering, handjob politician as charismatic. That's why.

Except Trump is somewhat unique in his appeal.

Ivytalk wrote:

kalm wrote:
Except Trump is somewhat unique in his appeal.

Why?

kalm wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: Why?

He's not afraid to speak his mind and is unwavering in his refusal to apologize or backtrack. He's an open book and doesn't give a **** about speaking gaffs. He just reverts back to 'vote for me...I'll be fantastic.'

BDKJMU wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
I don't think of Trump as a politician. He's just a rude, attention whore. I do realize, however, that the ven diagram of those two groups has a LARGE overlap....

And that's why he's leading in the polls. A large chunk of primary voters don't to vote for anyone who is a politician..they especially don't want anyone who is an inside the beltway politician..

I kind of like Kasich. But I cringed when he touted his 18 years in DC + 7 years governor. He was touting being a career politician, a negative, and even worse, he was touting being an inside the beltway politician, a BIG negative...

DSUrocks07 wrote: Besides if I WERE a career politician, I wouldn't even want the job, since AFAIK that once someone is President they can't hold any other government position that places them in the succession line to the Presidency.

So hypothethically you could have a President elected at 35 (minimum), serves two terms, and then what? Local town councilman for the next 22 years? Some career.