Back in the '80s in Philadelphia there was a mayoral election brewing. One newspaper writer was taken to task because he was constantly harping on the many faults of a candidate very much like Rump, Frank Rizzo -- very much the same faults. The task-taker wanted to know why he wasn't equally critical of Rizzo's alternative, Wilson Goode (who was himself no prize).
The writer put it this way:
"So let me be clear. Wilson Goode is a disaster. He's terrible. He's so bad --- only Frank Rizzo could make you vote for him."
That's how it works. This is the same thing all over again. For those of us who lived in Philadelphia in the '80s, this is a rerun.
>> Rocco DiSipio is a small-business owner in a working-class neighborhood where times aren’t quite as good as they once were. He isn’t used to being interviewed by reporters, but it’s primary season, and journalists want to know what the man-on-the-street thinks of the brash conservative candidate who seems to do everything wrong — and keeps winning anyway.
“This election has some racism,” admits DiSipio, acknowledging that his candidate can be blunt, or worse. His pick doesn’t have the typical qualifications, either, but for DiSipio, that’s part of the appeal. “He’s going to stand behind his word if it kills him. He can flunk at it, but you can’t say he won’t try.”
Traditional elites and professional politicians are baffled that such a man could rise so high in the polls. He defies political conventional wisdom at every turn, flouting party leaders and blithely dropping quotes that would wreck any other campaign. “This is not a normal election,” a Republican operator tells a
Washington Post reporter. “All normal voting patterns are out the window.”
This sounds like a dispatch from the Republican presidential primary campaign, and the candidate sounds a lot like Donald Trump.
But the quotes are actually from Philadelphia circa 1971, a time when a big bloc of the city fell for a different candidate who radiated authority and charisma — someone who would take charge and tell things as they were. That candidate was Frank Rizzo, whose unpolished tough-guy bravado, labor-friendly conservative populism and strident appeals for law and order spoke directly to the concerns of struggling working- and middle-class whites. Today, Donald Trump makes a very similar case to very similar voters.
Both men are known for their outsized personalities, unfiltered rhetoric, hatred for the media and utter assurance in their own righteousness. Both weaponized calculated bursts of invective: Rizzo promised to “make Attila the Hun look like a faggot,” while Trump assures his fans that he’ll “bomb the shit out of ISIS.” <<
Phillymag
