Looking to the past for a Ford analogue

I'm going to direct you to a post I wrote over a year ago that was originally in response to what Trump would be like as President.

https://teddyonpolitics.blogspot.com/2016/09/looking-to-past-for-trump-analogue.html

In the context of this post (again, in this context of this post, I am not saying that this applies in any other context) Ford is Trump.

In short, as a spoiler, Ford is like Australian Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

To quote from that earlier post

When police were caught on TV assaulting a protester by hitting her on the head with a baton, Joh gave them a pat on the back. The protesters, enemies of 'order', were the bad guy. This plays well because the majority of people who vote have never taken a part on any mass demonstration of this sort. They can not identify with the protester, but they can identify with fear. Who is it they fear? Not the policeman, who is their neighbour, their friend, but with the protestor, who is behaving in a way that seems incomprehensible.

Joh's control was in the press. While he did not force opposition off the air, his strategy was one of a showman. Joh used television to gain control not of the executive machinery, not of craftily devised legislation, but to gain control of society and the voters themselves.

Hence all the "fake news" out there these days.