05-02-2017, 10:45 AM
(05-02-2017, 08:48 AM)GMDino Wrote: I always thought Bush was "dumb" in the sense that he wasn't able to get his ideas from his brain to his mouth and he was unprepared to be President at all.
Trump is a special kind of dumb. The kind who insists he is right all the time even when he is not.
Interesting take. My opinion would be that Trump is more intelligent but not as smart. I get the impression that W is less intelligent guy who realizes the limits of his intelligence. Trump is a bit more intelligent but views himself as having no intellectual limits. I will tell you that there is nothing "special" about that kind of dumb, I encounter it daily.
(05-02-2017, 10:36 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: I want to say that I don't think Trump is unintelligent, I think he is ignorant to how government works. I don't like Trump, I think he is a con-man and has no business in the role he is in, but you still have to have some intelligence to get there. I don't think he has a thirst for knowledge. I think he gets distracted easily and isn't willing to put in the effort to really learn the details he needs to know even at high levels. That isn't a lack of intelligence, it's just his personality.
Bush II had a personality problem, as well, and that was letting those around him really shape his policy for the first bit of his time in office. It wasn't until the last two years or so that we really saw him put his own ideology to work. At least based on my opinions of it. He didn't have the ignorance, though, that Trump displays and he saw value in learning.
Anyway, I don't think either has a lack of intelligence. It just boils down to values.
Also well stated. I find it interesting how some people look on W with an odd form of nostalgia when, in many, if not most, ways his politics are at least as conservative as Trump's. I think the only area in which Trump exceeds Bush is in immigration enforcement. Bush is certainly a more "pro-life" person than Trump. I suppose that Trump's extreme behavior has provoked extreme reactions. It is interesting that Trump's opponents have, in many ways, succumbed to the exact same behavior that they claim to abhor in Trump.
