Style over substance

By the time the US got to Reagan the country was already well primed for style over substance. Having watched JFK beat Nixon in 1960, the GOP wanted to get someone who was camera ready and in 1966 chose Reagan who was a know nothing actor and pumped him full of talking points to run for governor in California. Even when he was later president, Reagan had been surprised to learn that South America wasn't one country.

Dubbya for his part was the folksy president you wanted to have a beer with and despite his ivy league schooling he had been a frat boy who Karl Rove and others molded into a facsimile of a politician and Neocons like Richard Pearle and Paul Wolfowitz helped goad into an unjust war which killed thousands of innocents.

That Trump has been the worst of them only speaks to the increasing disdain for knowledge and intelligence over media personality. At his best a blithering idiot, he manages to lead polls based on questions posed to people who often know less than him and thanks to social media have the attention span of fruit flies.

Today there is little point running an intelligent and measured politician, for the age of anti-intellectualism is more than ever alive and well.