I definitely agree with everything stated in the “Crooked Politics” by Bezio. It proves the theory that there is truly “nothing new under the sun”. The amount of parallels between Shakespear’s storyline and Trump’s behavior since the 2016 election is astonishing. Not only did he use the exact same tactics as Richard III but it links very closely to our idea of Tyranny. Richard the III became a medieval tyrant of sorts degrading other people as his tactic to get into office and through his reign. It is sad to me that we are not past the point of accepting this sort of behavior from our leader in the era of innovation or cultivation that we are currently in.
In the article, Bezio highlighted how both Richard III and Trump played on the fears of others to make their way into office. This links strongly to the idea of Charisma, importantly, the way that we discussed it in class. Charisma has nothing to do with qualification, care, or authenticity. Instead, it has everything to do with what a person can say and who they can convince. Nothing is rooted in truth or transparency. This is what allowed both Trump and Richard III to refuse to answer to those who are in office as a form of Checks and Balances (Congress).
I appreciate the tone of optimism used at the end of the article. However, if we as a culture keep allowing charisma to overshadow quality and honesty, then we will remain in the cycle of leaders who do in fact abuse their power. We will be stuck with leaders who are held accountable to no one and who feel free to say anything to anyone no matter how degrading. The main difference between the Richard III era and the one that we are currently living in is that back then there were enough people who saw Richard’s actions and were repulsed.
I fear that now the country is too immune to the actions of Trump to be as repulsed as it would take to replace him. In other words, no one supports his actions, however, they may vote for him again due to party affiliation despite everything that Trump has done that people may personally disagree with.
However, since apparently we are currently living in a play- I do hope that Bezio is right and that our story will end similarly to what Shakespeare intended.
I definitely agree with your points on how people are becoming immune to poor decisions made by people in power due to their charisma and how this blindness can drag us into a downward spiral of cycles of poor leaders with charisma and bad intentions. However, I do believe that more and more people are becoming aware of charismatic leaders who abuse their power through the multitude of articles and news stories that are being published with the intent to open the population’s eyes, in the same way that the people of Richard’s time started realizing the abuse of power.
I would agree that society is becoming more aware of potential tyrants. This relates back to how the media covers politicians.
The article made me think that one way that Trump uses fear to garner support is by making the country more and more politically polarized. This way people in one party are always fearing that the other party is going to take something from them, but Trump can promise that he won’t allow for that. I agree that people are becoming less and less aware of Trump doing this and how revolting his behavior frequently is.
I really liked your points! I agree and have similar views about the changes that need to occur if we are a society ever want an honest leader. When you said “Charisma has nothing to do with qualification, care, or authenticity. Instead, it has everything to do with what a person can say and who they can convince. Nothing is rooted in truth or transparency. ”
–> These sentences are so powerful. Truth and transparency should be a given at this point… why do we settle for anything less?