NationStates Jolt Archive

After a presidential election in the nation recently, Thomas Harlan has been elected as the new president and will begin his four-year term shortly. A couple reasons he won the election are that he's a very charismatic person and people like his policies. He's the type of man who seems like the type to espouse American (1950s) ideas. The problem is I need a couple character flaws to make him a more believable and realistic person. Any suggestions?

He's the type of man who seems like the type to espouse American (1950s) ideas.

I would assume that would make him a racist Republican, but that's just my opinion.

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Co-founder Kriegistan Conferderate
Member Galactic Defence Alliance

http://www.weekendlazyness.com/img/battlesig.jpg (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1849269)

Make him a womanizer. That was a common flaw in the '50s.

Those could work, I'll definitely consider them

Here's a picture of him in case anyone's interested
http://www.erols.com/tinajero/Osvaldo.jpg

You can make him physically weak, or maybe he could have some mental issue that keeps coming back to haunt him.

Or I could show you what I use with my own characters, and you could get an idea from that. For Jai Resi, I use the fact that he is simply human (yet he surrounds himself with immortals) and that his tounge slips sometimes, while I use Sara Resi's angst and lust for control and entertainment as her vices. Dawn Kradii's just a bitch with some deeper emotional issues, and Prof. Washu lacks self-esteem sometimes.

I may think of some more, and if I do they'll appear here.

There are several things you can do with him. Womanising is one of them, and always a crowd pleasure. He can have a black sheep in his family, or perhaps a skeleton in his closet that comes back to haunt him during his term.

On a personal level, his charisma might be an efficient cover for a rather cruel and bloodthirsty personality. It's practically a cliche for fictional politicians. His charisma might also distract people from the fact that in spite of his ideals, he's not terribly decisive: he's too dependent on his handlers (an increasingly common failing) to really handle an emergency well.

You could combine them. He could be a puppet for a specific group with an agenda to push, perhaps unwilling because of a skeleton in his closet. Or, in spite of his strong family values platform, he could be a bad, inattentive father with very rebellious children. He could even be a man with a burning temper, prone to beat his wife and children when things really get tough.

If you want to get really angsty, he could have a terminal illness that threatens to take him at any moment. Perhaps he's already outlived his doctors' predictions, so he's entered politics in a bid to leave the world a little better than he came into it. Or maybe he's going to use the position to abuse it horribly, and punish the world for inflicting such a cruel fate on him.

There are lots of ways you could twist this guy for flavour. You don't have to go to extremes, they're just more interesting.

If you want to get really angsty, he could have a terminal illness that threatens to take him at any moment. Perhaps he's already outlived his doctors' predictions, so he's entered politics in a bid to leave the world a little better than he came into it. Or maybe he's going to use the position to abuse it horribly, and punish the world for inflicting such a cruel fate on him.Wow, quite Dick Cheny-esque. :wink:

You could make him a gay homophobe who attepts to overcompensate for his predicament by womanizing, which could lead to some pretty good comedic RPs, as well as a nice national moral crisis should he ever come out of the closet.