My political awakening happened during the 1992 presidential campaign. Prior to 1991/92, I was mostly oblivious to politics beyond a knee-jerk reaction to the story of the day. When the campaign began, I was in favor of Bob Kerrey, a Democratic Senator from neighboring Nebraska (I lived in Iowa at the time). Kerrey had a dim view of Governor Clinton and I adopted that view. As such, I was less than thrilled when Clinton won the Democratic nomination. Enter Ross Perot. Perot was a straight shooter who sang one of my favorite tunes: the government spends too much. His TV infomercial was highly enjoyable though it was more diagnosis than prescription. He ripped both Bush and Clinton, but more Bush as I recall. However, he was also a bit of a crank, offering a nutty story about President Bush threatening to ruin his daughter's wedding. Huh? But for his inexplicable withdraw and then return to the campaign, Perot might have actually won. Probably not but when you consider the alternates were Bush and Clinton, it was possible. And that may be the spark that brought about the Trump Presidency.
Ross Perot wasn't a politician or a general, the two sources for presidential material throughout US history. Even so, he won 19% of the vote in '92, 8% in '96, and started the Reform Party. Guess who briefly ran for the nomination in the Reform Party in 2000: Donald Trump. If a man who reminded me of Little Caesar - "Pizza pizza" - could win almost 20% of the vote after having left the campaign then anything was possible. If Barry Goldwater's embarrassing defeat was a precursor to Ronald Reagan's two landslide victories, then one could argue that Ross Perot blazed a trail for fellow billionaire Trump to win the White House.
RIP
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