Unqualified admiration for a political figure

Started by Cyrano Johnson, September 03, 2013, 06:08:34 PM

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Cyrano Johnson

It's a strange sensation in an age this cynical. But I have to admit I'm experiencing it for the mayor of my city:



I was going to put this in a G&C thread, but it is about a politician when it comes right down to it. Maybe a good opportunity to share the news on figures you admire?
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Florence

There's not really any political figures I can think of offhand that I admire. Though I have the oddest desire to move to Calgary now.
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SakamotoHD

That is excellent. I want to move to Canada to live in his city.

Beguile's Mistress

*contributes the coupon for a free trial of a likely pharmaceutical that arrived in my mail as I'll no need for it*

Oniya

From Mr. Oniya:  'You know, he just won votes for that.'
My response:  'I don't even live in Calgary, and I'd vote for him.'
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
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Tairis

I like this guy.

I'll admit I'm actually kinda a fan of John Mccain especially after seeing the article on CNN today where it was 'Mccain caught playing poker on his phone'. Then you read the article and his response is basically 'that shit was 3 and a half hours long, of course I got bored'.

I'll take honesty from politicians wherever I can get it.
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- Robert Heinlein

Vekseid

It's almost like leaders are human beings or something.

Cyrano Johnson

#7
Quote from: SakamotoHD on September 03, 2013, 07:16:00 PM
That is excellent. I want to move to Canada to live in his city.

Honestly: it's such an unusual [okay, completely fucking weird] feeling to have a mayor of Calgary whose politics is about openness, engagement and a bit of humour rather than backroom dealing, backslapping and gladhanding with a select class of fat cats. The latter has been the standard for most of the city's history.

The only other time that standard was bucked in living memory, and that only to a certain extent, was by the equally-legendary* Ralph Klein, who was noted for drinking with the hoi-polloi at the Louie, a seedy hotel bar in the downtown core whose big feature event was the "horse races" -- little plastic horses coursing around a toy mechanical track. I'm not even kidding you.

But with Klein that was theatrics dressing up the backroom back-slapping, as he made clear in his transition to provincial politics. Nenshi's appeal lies in his behaving like he actually means all of the rhetoric about transparency and involvement, a pattern of behaviour he held to even in an actual crisis situation during the recent flooding: when Stephen Harper [our PM; megalomaniacal techocrat with delusions of grandeur, a local boy whom nobody is willing to really treat as a local boy] and Allison Redford [our Premier; fairly typical provincial Tory apparatchik about whom the best that can be said is that she tends slightly toward Lougheed] were doing Potemkin-village photo ops with happy rhetoric, he was actually in the crisis centre answering questions from the public on live television. It's still hard to tell how much of the input he actually takes on board when policy-making, but the mere fact of him acting like consulting with the public is part of his job description makes him an outlier in Alberta politics. (Which itself speaks volumes about Alberta politics.)

I love it. On the other hand, I have to candidly admit part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop and to find out he's into underaged prostitutes or Rex Murphy editorials** or some other damned thing.

(* I actually think this needs the qualifier almost equally-legendary now. Which is a fucking huge thing to say about a Calgary mayor. But it's true.)

(** Not seriously equating the two, it's just a little CBC humour. Rex Murphy is the Obligatory Wingnut on CBC's eleven o'clock news show The National; imagine a pissed-off, acerbic Andy Rooney who doesn't quite know what day it is and spends all day yelling at his television.)
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ThePrince

Quote from: Vekseid on September 03, 2013, 09:56:49 PM
It's almost like leaders are human beings or something.

Well there is Dick Cheney and I am sure Strom Thurmond resembled more of a Disney animatronic at the end.

As to politicians I admire. Tammy Duckworth and John Lewis for their respective backgrounds.

Duckworth is a double amputee iraq veteran and John Lewis is a distinguished member of the Civil Rights Movement.
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Oniya

Quote from: ThePrince on September 04, 2013, 08:43:18 AM
Well there is Dick Cheney and I am sure Strom Thurmond resembled more of a Disney animatronic at the end.

I'm thinking Strom was more like Walter.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Valerian

I was pretty impressed with some of the state politicians during the protests here in Wisconsin a couple of years back.  There was this guy, for one:

www.youtube.com/embed/bubUM7x5xYg?rel=0

I've met him, at a rally where he gave a talk and then went out and mingled with the crowd afterwards, and he's definitely not afraid to speak up when he thinks it's needed.  Not my rep, sadly, but an all-too-rare example of a politician who actually cares about his job and his constituents.

And on the other side of that conflict, there was Republican senator Dale Schultz, who actually *gasp* listened to his constituents and even *double gasp* tried to work with the Democrats to find compromise.  He and Democratic senator Tim Cullen exchanged visits, each going to the other's district to meet and talk with people -- even though these were people who couldn't actually vote for either of them.

http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/senators-road-trip-aims-to-show-bipartisanship-isn-t-dead/article_ca6da7ce-b983-11e0-ad1f-001cc4c002e0.html
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Callie Del Noire

I don't know about unqualified admiration.. but I've respected a few in my life.

Like.. (don't hit me) the late Senator Jesse Helms. Yeah, there were a LOT of issues I didn't agree with Jesse on and with which I would have gotten very verbal about.. but I respected that he was willing to work with others (for example.. BONO of U2) for issues he felt right and he stepped up and did things that didn't advance his position in the Senate but helped my home state.

I have a lot more admiration for the Late Barry Goldwater after reading his book Conscience of a Conservative. It's interesting to look at what he thought from the POV of someone on the other side of the radical changes of the 60s and on. His issue with integration, to me, was faulty but interesting. He felt that it would be better and longer lasting if it came from the communities and not forced on the communities. I disagree BUT I have to wonder if we'd have a lot less strife and discontent IF we could have do it his way. Of course we couldn't of, there would still be segregation over large swarths of the South, but a lot of cultural clashes might have been avoided. Stupid to wonder I know.. but there you go. I disagree with a lot of his views on education and such but that is because I see how 'ground up' has become the byword of the obstructionists on both sides of the party divide.