"If you sound like you know what you're talking about, people will assume you do." -- Pug Mahoney, editor of The Snark Report.
Major news media have finally begin to acknowledge their role in enabling the rise and successes of a demagogue in politics.
Popular entertainment personalities have succeeded in politics before, of course, notably such Hollywood folk as Arnold Schwarzenegger, who become governor of California, and Ronald Reagan, who served two terms as President.
Both were trained actors, and this was especially helpful for Reagan. The ability to play a role and convince an audience of their competence is crucial to both actors and politicians, and there is often little difference between an actor and a candidate.
It's important for government officials to persuade voters of their competence, but less so for actors. A dramatic role is by its nature an act, and the person in that role does not have to believe in the reality of the personality the actor portrays. The actor need only persuade the audience temporarily, so the performance is essentially an illusion.
The danger to society comes when an entertainer or a business executive enters politics and tries to persuade the electorate of his competence in government.
Show business people memorize a well written script. But when journalists transcribe comments by politicians, the result is rambling to point of being incoherent gibberish.
Success in one field does not guarantee success in another.
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