Could ppl w/ Aspergers win elections? Would we want them to?

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Looking back over the past two presidential campaigns, it's really difficult for me to see any way for someone with Aspergers to weather the fundraising, the media, the gladhanding, etc. And then afterward you need to build relationships with all the lawmakers and stuff. It just seems to require a lot of stuff that is particularly difficult for people with autism. Same with legislators. It's a shame in my opinion, though, especially on the legislative front, because you really need people who can obsess over the details of their subject areas when debating policy. Eh, maybe I'm just talking nonsense, though. What do other people think?

While an aspie politician would certainly be a nice change of pace, I just don't see it happening. Like you said, I think the social demands would simply be too much. I also very highly doubt that an aspie could manage to pander to voters well enough to get enough votes to win.

Oh, I think we've already had a couple of presidents on the spectrum.

Now, a candidate who is out of the closet on the Asperger's-Autism Spectrum, similar to gay rights, this may be a somewhat different matter.

Really? Which ones do you think were on the spectrum?

I have asked the question if anybody on WP has contested a public election and it seems that nobody has

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt242118.html

It has been suggested that one of our recent Prime Ministers (in the UK) was on the autism spectrum.

I think (whether he is or not) it is important to note that he did not win an election, but inherited the job from a social expert. I can't imagine him actually doing enough of the schmoozing to have got there on his own. However, I found it refreshing to have a politician who wasn't a salesman.

already happened,Thomas Jefferson and dont forget what world leader ever had more raw power than Losif Stalin who won the most important battle of world war 2.
because had stalin and kruzchev not secured the eastern front the americans and british could not have stormed the beaches at normandy

I think someone with low functioning autism would win. I don't know why.

Politics requires a certain degree of pandering that I know I am incapable of and feel that others would have a hard time with too... I think an Aspie would make a great politician, though, just because of the propensity for honesty, hard work and focus!

True... But these people had to contend with a very different kind of media exposure. One faux paux today would get memed or gifed or go viral very quickly

Thomas Jefferson? We cannot diagnose a dead person... period.

I address that HERE...


How is that different from now?

If one did I'd feel sorry for him/her. Seems like a horrible job for an aspie, right up there with telemarketing. It's all about social skills as far as I can see.

Besides, we don't need to win elections to have a voice, just vote - or at least where elections aren't rigged.

I am actually running for president

Crunching the poll numbers and research for the President seems like more suitable jobs.

I dunno... I really think that this country could benefit from the brutal honesty of an aspie in office

I'm inclined to agree with you. It would be great to have a President who values logic over mind games, accuracy over spin, fairness over whatever-they-call-this-mess-we've-got.

An Aspie President would need a really, really GREAT executive secretary-- or to be one of those anally-retentive, highly organized Aspies (which I am not, to so great a degree I don't even get it-- chaos only bothers me when I start thinking about judgment-- I LIKE chaos, making life up minute-by-minute, it makes me feel free and alive-- I am one of those moms who LIVE for school vacations, even if we piss it all away eating popcorn and playing board games in front of the tube-- more than loose structure feels like a straight jacket).

I don't think people would go for it, though. An Aspie candidate would have to hire a bunch of great speech writers and have lessons in stage presence-- because it's NOT about who would make the best leader. Our politicians ARE leaders-- or lawmakers, anyway, as I question how much they really lead any more (I think they're mostly mouthpieces for the big lobbies and the superwealthy at this point). The problem is that people don't want honesty-- they want to think of themselves as wanting honesty, but what they really want is pretty half-truths and twisted spin that they can CALL HONEST. A candidate would have to at least play to that to get into office-- and THEN draw a hard line and be very, very brutally honest.

Good luck with it-- hey, I'll take a look at your platform and if it's not diametrically opposed to my beliefs, I'll write you in. I might write you in even if it is-- I can't be a Democrat any more, I can't bring myself to vote Republican, I can't be a Libertarian 'cause laissez-faire gave us the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the mine wars and I don't want to revisit THAT in 50 years, I can't be a Green because I've met too many environmentalists who are eugenicists... Even if I hate what you stand for, I might vote for you just 'cause I believe you are honest.