From Edwin Edwards to Donald Trump, voters are sometimes spontaneously blind

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I remember the first time I met Edwin Edwards. He was governor of Louisiana, and I was a young reporter at a newspaper in the central region of the state.

Her eyes were blue as if I had heard, and her demeanor was as charming as I had heard. Coming out of an auditorium where he had just talked to a group, Edwards listened intently as I asked about what controversy he had been in so far. (It was once in 1977.)

As he answered my question, I took quick and careful notes, and quietly greeted myself as I caught up with him on his departure. But when I went back to the newsroom and sat down to write my story, I realized what other reporters knew before I even knew and what the journalists who followed me realized: One of Edwards many skills to the politically well -sought is his ability to answer journalists’ questions without actually saying anything meaningful.

The 93-year-old former governor died on July 12 of respiratory failure. Married three times, he is the father of five children, the youngest at age 7 when Edwards passed away. She has done many significant things while in office, including taking on a historic number of women and minorities, implementing constitutional reform and changing the way the state taxed the oil and gas industry.

Her accomplishments were overshadowed by her unrepentant femininity, overspending, junket gambling and corruption; and somehow, in some way, despite 10 years in federal prison for accepting a bribe, he remained an attractive political figure until the day he died.

It is a testimony of many things, none of which reflect specifically human nature. In the same way some Americans would stick with former President Donald Trumps until the day he also crossed the bar, many Louisiana were captivated by Edwards ’charm, by the way he thumbed his investigators and prosecutors. , in his refusal to apologize for anything and in his ability to convince ordinary voters that he represents the little man.

Not to put a very good point here, but Edwards exploited – and Trump exploited – the gullibility of the people and their willingness to be taken away and amused by politicians ’exploitation and calculated exaggeration.

Among Edwards ’famous zingers The only way I could lose in this election was if I got caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live man (he won) and, about his opponent in career of governor, David Treen is very slow it takes him hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes. (He also won that election).

With the same mindset, Donald Trump may be most famous – or popularity – for his brash declaration that he can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any voters. With no experience or track record in politics, he was elected president of the most powerful country in the world 10 months later.

This is not new. Over the years, voters have regularly allowed themselves to be hurt by politicians who are more willing to serve themselves than the people who put them in office. About 60 years ago in Alabama, while James Big Jim Folsom was running again for governor, in a campaign appearance he dismissed allegations of corruption by saying, I pleaded guilty to theft. The crowd that it came from me, you have to steal it to get it. … I steal for you, and you, and you.

Folsom lost that election, but it was less because of that statement and more because of a TV appearance in which he was very drunk. Otherwise, I stole for you, and you, and you might have brought him back to the governors mansion.

Voters can be gullible and that is deliberate, no embarrassment blind.

More than 30 years ago, a biographer of Edwards recounted attending a religious revival where Edwards was greeted with applause and applause.

According to the New York Times, author John Maginnis asked the preacher afterwards, How can saints support a man who is known to gamble, chase women and continue to face investigation for corruption?

And the preacher replied, Well, he doesn’t drink or smoke.

In the same story, the Times also quoted a woman who said this about Edwards after he was released from federal prison in 2011: We all know he stole. But he told us he would do it.

Now I realize what I should have asked Edwin Edwards the first day when I snag a quick interview with him: So, stealing is OK and so is gambling, feminism, corruption and prioritizing oneself over whether what is best for the people you should think to serve, as long as you do everything with a good antidote?

And with her blue eyes blinking, she would have smiled a charming smile and answered my question in a way that appeared to make sense, while not really saying anything even remotely meaningful.

Frances Coleman is former editor of the Mobile Press-Register editorial page. Email her [email protected], like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/prfrances and subscribe to her podcast, The Reasonable Southerner, atttps: //shows.acast.com/the-reasonable-southerner.

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