Aspergians as politicians--who else?

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phoebes-in-santa fe on December 14, 2011 3:57 PM:

A poster called "shagsbur" over at Taegan Goddard's place posted this about Newt Gingrich and it sounds possible.

"Here is the absolute truth about Newt Gingrich, written by one who knows, myself, a fellow ERG. Newt Gingrich has Asperger's Syndrome. He talks at people with pure Aspergian speech. Hypersensitive, he somehow is also emotionally tone deaf to others. He does not play well with other children. He is impulsive, and prone to puzzling mood swings. He is not a good liar, but seems to lie because he makes conflicting remarks constantly. Whatever he is saying at the time is his absolute truth, because at that moment, he believes it. Finally, he relies on scripts in all his social interactions. He taught his scripts (Democrats are "odious, pathetic, malignant, etc) to fellow Republicans and flipped the house in '94. Now, probably coached by his wife, Callista, a control freak, he is running a script in which he never says an unkind word to a fellow Republican. Bottom line: EGSs are useful, brilliant and often important people. Bill Gates is an ERG, as is Mark Zuckerburg. BUT... you would not want to give the nuclear football to one of us. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.
I would not mind at all to see this Asperger's analysis go viral. "

Newt has shifty NT eyes. His focus is all wrong for an aspie IMHO.

I've for some time thought that Richard Nixon might've had Asperger's. He was highly intelligent, and yet he was in his personal life very much socially inept, and uncomfortable in his own skin. As an example, the normally shy Nixon would try to fit in with other guys, and so would crack an off color joke, which he would laugh at but would leave everyone else feeling uncomfortable. This was hardly a once in a while thing with him. And reminiscing about his college days, Nixon would recall how after joining the football team, he was so slow and uncoordinated that he was pretty much just a tackle dummy. As president, he wasn't able to understand his political opponents, who he decided were his enemies out to destroy him, and so surrounded himself with like minded sycophants who let him believe he lived under siege in the White House.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

After reading Poisoning the Press, I was convinced Nixon had Asperger's. One thing people might want to know is about Nixon's father who allowed his brother to die because the Nixon family refused charity. As you all very well know, rigidity is a symptom of Asperger's and it runs in families. Also, when Nixon was trying to woo his girlfriend, Pat Nixon, he had absolutely no tact and was very intent about his wanting to date her. Soooooo he would drive her and her boyfriend on dates. Apparently he was bullied as a kid for his awkwardness as well. While these things to not conclusively prove that Nixon had Asperger's all of these symptoms lead me to believe that Nixon likely possessed the trait or, at least, he was an incredibly neurotic and paranoid person.

Only one that comes to my mind is Thomas Jefferson but that's based on hypothesis.

I thought you would say the answers are yes. Don't underestimate your abilities.

Why would an aspie have to fake compassion and pity?
We may have trouble in expressing or understanding our emotions but the idea we don't have them is easily debunked after an afternoon in PPR.

Last edited by JakobVirgil on 08 Aug 2012, 12:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Very well said, indeed.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

The most magnetic and charismatic politicians are masters of expressing emotion; particularly passion and hope. The ability to feel passion or hope, without the ability to express it for a politician is useless in communicating and generating that emotion among the masses. They usually have to connect through emotional communication in order to inspire votes.

Reagan, Clinton, and Obama were all gifted in this area; so far 2 out 3 were able to connect well enough through with their target audience with this gift, to receive two terms. Not too surprising that Obama has over 18M followers on Twitter, and Romney has yet to approach 1M.

Romney who is often referred to as either a corpse, robot, or funeral director. But, never the less, Americans and humans in general, can appreciate an individual who looks well preserved; Romney definitely meets that requirement, in his mid 60's.

Highly unlikely though that he raised 5 apparently well adjusted sons, without any ability to experience emotion or empathy. But, he appears to be a perfectionist that has a difficult time with expressing complex emotion, often limited to a forced smile, as well as a long history of doing socially inappropriate things, that apparently other people get, that he doesn't get, including putting a gun to his head for apparently what he thought was funny, in a year book photo.

That behavioral disconnect of his issues in perceiving socially appropriate behavior in the range of complexity of experience in a race for President is starting to come through as a more visible issue. And a similar type of social behavior, destroyed his father's campaign for President.

Clinton was the master of all politicians that I have seen during my lifetime to balance emotional and intellectual communication. Unfortunately for his legacy he could not control his personal passions.

In watching Musolini and Hitler in their expression of emotion they both seemed to inspire a passion of almost chimpanzee like alpha male anger, however Hitler, like Nixon's anger inspired passion seemed to be rooted in a place of fear rather than true military style "alpha male" anger/passion rooted in confidence. Paranoia and anger inspired passion, can be a dangerous combination, in leadership and almost in every other area of life.

In historical accounts of presidents, there were many that had a range of physical as well as mental health adversities, that they managed to adapt to, that perhaps in part, drove them to the levels of political success they found. While John Kennedy had the advantage of a family name, he overcame incredible odds of physical and mental health adversities, that at that time was hidden from the public, for the most part. His strength of will was amazing.

It seems like presidents are extremely complex and unique individuals; I think one could almost come up with a unique diagnosis for each one just by their name, as they are in a place of almost constant public scrutiny. And there is no doubt that some of these individuals have some traits that fall somewhere on a broader autism phenotype (let me be careful not to say scale ).

But an actual diagnosis of a disorder for an autism spectrum disorder, would be highly unlikely as at least in the present day, one has to be firing on all cylinders of functionality in major areas of life functioning to become elected to the highest office in the land.

Not likely someone with could meet the criteria for an actual diagnosis of an ASD, could weather the level of scrutiny through the highly stressful campaign process that is continually shown in a spotlight, or could accommodate that level of stress of required social interaction without showing a significant impairment. It would almost by default, either exclude the potential of significant impairments/criteria in social interaction, required in all diagnosed ASD's, or exclude the potential of success in an election. There is too much media scrutiny.

While it's highly unlikely that Romney could be diagnosed with an ASD, he obviously has some difficulties with the expression of social communication. But, his level of "preservation", in looking the role, from a brief glance in a photo-op, as well as an evidenced high level of intellectual achievement in the academic environment, as well as business achievement, has taken him far in the world, regardless if he straps his dog in a crate on the roof of his station wagon, puts a gun to his head in a year book photo, or any of his interesting observations of the world that seem unique to the Romney World.

Obama has approximated some of this behavior as well, but he has the gift of expressing passion and hope, in communication, that appears that Romney lacks. It will be interesting to see the debates between the two.