Classes and alignments for presidential candidates
To keep this thread from being locked right away, PLEASE be civil regardless of your viewpoints -- *especially* to those candidates you despise.
It is easy to be tempted to go ahead and label them all to be "Illusionist/Thief" and "Neutral Evil" -- but let us get creative here.
As a house rule for civility: any reference to "race" should strictly be regarding D&D races, not actual ethnicity of the candidate.
NO HOSTILITY is welcome here. Let us keep it good clean fun.
I'll get started with an easy one:
Ben Carson - Priest of Ilsensine - CN
[Ilsensine is the patron deity of brain surgeons... I mean, Mind flayers.]
What about your most/least favorite candidates?
It is easy to be tempted to go ahead and label them all to be "Illusionist/Thief" and "Neutral Evil" -- but let us get creative here.
As a house rule for civility: any reference to "race" should strictly be regarding D&D races, not actual ethnicity of the candidate.
NO HOSTILITY is welcome here. Let us keep it good clean fun.
I'll get started with an easy one:
Ben Carson - Priest of Ilsensine - CN
[Ilsensine is the patron deity of brain surgeons... I mean, Mind flayers.]
What about your most/least favorite candidates?
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Comments
I'd say we're off to a good start.
Besides, this ain't the Diablo forums...
With the level of maturity in this forum, most members probably remember the time they voted for the first Roosevelt, and prepare witty remarks on the Nixon administration as we speak...
The next person takes offense, saying "keep your religion out of my xyz. That isn't evil!"
Bad things happen.
Even the heroic political figures of our past would likely fall into this category. Even the most beloved heroes were involved in questionable events, from Gandhi to Trudeau to Kennedy. Political practicality generally favours those who get things done and maintain order, for good or bad.
There, I said it. Everyone can go home now.
Class: Shaman (of Soul Devouring)
Alignment: Extreme Evil
Hillary - Lawful neutral, maybe a fighter? She fights for the status quo as I see it.
Sanders - Neutral good, maybe a ranger? Can be argued to be slighly chaotic as well on account of his opposition to the status quo since he is not taking super pacs. Ranger because of climate change/environmental views, but he views politics as a struggle between forces where he has taken a side, rather than attempting balance as a druid would prefer.
(And of course this is based on political views - doesn't mean it needs to become a bad discussion)
Bernie Sanders is a Druid with the Avenger kit. Ranger also works, but they don't get healing spells until much later. (Then again, Bernie Sanders is pretty old...)
Donald Trump is an Inquisitor, seeking out wrongdoers and illegal immigrants wherever they reside and demanding their birth certificates. (His Reputation is also just barely inside the acceptable bounds for a paladin, but who knows when he might "fall"...)
Hillary Clinton is a Fighter who recently dual-classed as a Druid to try and take some of the base away from Bernie Sanders. Bernie says she's just changing her class because it's politically convenient; Hillary insists that she's dual-classing because her views have evolved over the years, and she now wants to learn some healing spells. (She also points to RP moments from previous sessions where she was clearly laying the groundwork for this character development, and her confusion about what LinkedIn is for is surely a sign that she "doesn't understand civilized technology"...)
Ben Carson is an Enchanter, manipulating people's brains, though he says it's because he wants to help them get better. (He also points to a violent childhood, and his decision to use enchantment spells on himself to make him less violent as an adult. Trump says Carson is low-energy; Carson insists that he is merely "under the effects of a Calm Emotions spell"...)
Justin Trudeau is a 5th Edition Bard from the College of Lore. (Why 5th Edition? "Because it's 2015.")
Edit: Btw, I won't get into race/class for Dick Cheney, but it's fairly safe to assume he's some kind of ogrillion fumbling with a longbow, wearing Elander's Gloves of Misplacement during the hunt that ended with a bullet in that other poor sod's head back in '06.
If we're going back to previous elections, though, I'd say John McCain is a Cavalier (since he's such a maverick), Al Gore is a true-class Druid, George W Bush is a Sorcerer (he gets most of his magic from a powerful ancestor), Barack Obama is a Shadowdancer (he doesn't do much backstabbing, but he also is a big fan of keeping government secrets...), and Mitt Romney is the Aristocrat NPC class from Third Edition.
Beginning with McCain and Obama, though, all of them except Sanders completely break the "Wealth By Level" chart in the DM's Guide, but they'll all (except maybe Donald Trump) say that "It's not my Vorpal Longsword; it's my SuperPAC's." Trump will say he paid for the Vorpal Longsword himself, though it eventually comes out that it was at least partially paid for by the SuperPAC Make Waterdeep Great Again™.
Chris Christie is a Human Blowhard. (It's an expert kit.
I mean... Is it actually a thing? Or just a joke that everyone is in on?
I just wanted to add to my earlier post, that I haven't seen anything to make me think this isn't going to be another Bush vs. Clinton race.
@BillyYank has it right. Each party has to decide between two competing objectives: choosing the candidate that is more in line with their values, and therefore unpalatable to moderate voters, or choosing the candidate that doesn't quite match their values, but is more electable. Also, third party candidates can take away votes from one of the big party candidates.
This means Trump is more electable among certain segments of the Republican base, but is less likely to win the actual election if the GOP chooses him, since a lot of voters find him too extreme. However, if they nominate somebody else, Trump may well run as an independent candidate. His candidacy would then sap votes from the Republican candidate, and therefore increase the chance of a Democrat victory. So even if we put aside the actual issues, there are purely political reasons for the GOP to either choose Trump or choose somebody else.
You have a similar but less extreme thing going on among the two big Democrat candidates, Hillary and Bernie. Hillary isn't as far to the left as Bernie, and a lot of left-leaning Americans don't like her as much, but she's more electable than Bernie. The Democratic Party has to decide between a higher-risk candidate like Bernie, who is more likely to push a left-of-center agenda they would want, and Hillary, who is going to be less extreme, but more likely to win the election in the first place. I call this example "less extreme" because Bernie doesn't seem as controversial as Trump. He's not nearly as thoroughly mocked as Trump, at the very least.
But I understand that the President's power has waned in recent years, rendering the question partly moot. Congressional districts have suffered from gerrymandering, which means a lot of congresspeople's best interests are in pandering to an extreme minority rather than trying to appeal to a broader variety of Americans. This means a portion of Congress is going to be very dead-set on a narrow agenda, and has no reason to compromise. The President can't do much without congressional support in our system, so our less flexible Congress means a less powerful President.
In a nutshell, Trump is a possibility for a Republican candidate, but he's not very likely to win a general election.
EDIT: I think I was wrong about Clinton being the more electable candidate than Sanders. Although the question is settled as of this writing, polling earlier on showed that Sanders was more likely than Hillary to win against any of the Republican candidates.
American politics is steadily heading towards complete insanity, if it isn't there already.
The net result seems to have backfired. It's made them very dependent on the far right (as opposed to the moderate right). The GOP's most prominent members have become less popular in recent years among the general public. Republican America has not changed that much, I think (I don't think the American right in general has gotten more extreme), but the GOP strategy has. The last two presidential elections, especially 2012, were a good example of the backlash. It's not really normal for an incumbent to win an election when the economy is struggling. Obama has been very controversial--he's had some very low approval ratings--but the GOP still couldn't get the votes to replace him.
The use of budget battles to effect change (the attempts to shut down the government) and the failure to get rid of Obamacare are more signs of the GOP's recent weakness. It's a bad omen for your party when you try to defund a program that you don't have the power to repeal, only to find you don't have the power to defund it either.
Hillary: Shapeshifter
Trump: Lawful Neutral Bounty Hunter
Bernie: Chaotic Good Wizard Slayer
Jeb Bush - Lawful Neutral Expert(NPC) *The established way of doing things is all that matters (And GAWD is he a boring class!)
Donald Trump - Chaotic Evil Entertainer (Thief Kit) *Self Absorbed Egomaniac
Rand Paul - Chaotic Neutral Diviner Mage * Libertarian Optometrist
Huckabee - Lawful Evil Evangelist (Cleric Kit)* Hard one, because he is very social conscious but in the end would impose his religion on others...LAWFUL EVIL!
Ben Carson - Chaotic Evil Wu Jen * Neurosurgeon who doesn't believe in evolution, Egyptian Pyramids were built for grain storage (He must be confusing CIV for the real world.) Self absorbed healer egomaniac with weird spiritual beliefs...Wu Jen, weird as f%&k
Chris Christie - Neutral Evil Thug *New Jersey Politician, was never ever a lawyer or prosecutor with any skill, was in fact a fund raiser, knew where to get all the favors and money in Jersey.
Marco Rubio - Lawful Evil Fence (Thief Kit) * Has no real personal beliefs, just likes following orders and serving as a "Face" to secretive powerful people.
Hillary Clinton - Neutral Changeling Shapeshifter * What the heck is she? What has she ever stood for? What has she ever accomplished? Who knows...
Kasich - Neutral Good Diplomat * May not agree with him on very much, but knows how to get along and is driven to make compromises for the greater good.
Carly Fiorina - Chaotic Evil Swindler (Thief Kit) * Walked away with 40 million dollars after nearly destroying HP and is now running for president based on what a great swindle she pulled off...