There was a time when the Republican Party was a relevant and professional political organization filled with serious, qualified individuals. Sadly, those days are over. In their quest to sink to the lowest common denominator in American political discourse, the Republicans have become a sloppy organization of national candidates who cannot identify a Supreme Court decision with which they disagree, cannot explain their opposition to President Obama's policies, and who get lost even when pandering to fiscal conservatives about which federal agencies that they would eliminate. At various times it has been said that the Republican Party has had a Woman Problem, or a Minority Problem, but the fact is that the party has a Seriousness Problem.
President George W. Bush was a pioneer in this regard, having succeeded in lowering the bar for underachieving, inarticulate slackers in national politics. Bush badly lost every debate leading up to the 2000 election but the media was complicit in setting expectations so low for him that as long as he showed up, he was declared successful. Meanwhile, for actually being prepared and knowledgeable (though smug) Al Gore was painted as a weird elitist. The same thing happened to Kerry in 2004.
After eight years of Bush-era anti-intellectualism, the doors were wide opened for whatever yahoos wanted to seek office. Sarah Palin, famously, couldn't name a single newspaper that she read. Serious policy questions were met with her trademark rambling circular non-answers, like a schoolkid caught unprepared for an exam. 2010 was the year of the Proudly Ignorant, with such-not-ready-for-primetime candidates as Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell.
Here we are in 2011, about to go into the Republican primaries and Mitt Romney seems poised to win despite his no-mentum and largely due to the fact that all of the candidacies around him are imploding. To his credit, Romney is a clear and articulate candidate who at least seems Presidential. If you squint.
The calm and collected Romney actually seems like an afterthought in this process of embarrassingly unprofessional, self-destructing candidates, that at one time included Donald Trump as its front-runner. Michele Bachmann was an early favorite, who fell out of favor after showing off her fatal character flaw of pathological dishonesty. Specifically, she made an outrageous claim about the side effects of the HPV vaccination based solely on something some strange lady yelled out to her at a rally.
Next, yet another Texas governor arrived on the scene, proudly referencing cheerleading and his below-average college grades. But, during public appearances, Perry veered between either being catatonic or channeling Jim J. Bullock on ecstasy. During the last debate, Perry was at a loss to name a third federal agency that he would (fake) eliminate if he became president (which he won't). In his defense, the man was pandering really hard...
Despite insisting otherwise, businessman Herman Cain is the new flavor of the month. Cain not only brings inexperience to the table, but also a harem of sexual harassment accusers (the Cainettes?) As with Sarah Palin, you often get the feeling that Cain is cramming and trying to catch up to things that he should know. Such as his excruciating answer during a recent question about President Obama's Libya policy. I'm sorry, but you have no right to criticize the policy if you do not understand it.
Supporters and opponents alike had a name for Ronald Reagan: The Great Communicator. Say what you will about the Reagan presidency, but he was undoubtedly a terrific spokesman for America. He understood that a big part of the presidency is articulating and communicating a message and projecting confidence. A great president will always sound like they know what they are talking about, even when (invariably) they may not. In their anti-intellectual zeal, the Republican party has exalted the average at the expense of the great but the best of their current crop is barely average.
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