The Republican Party's Problem

Here’s what happened. Republicans stopped choosing leaders who were smarter than average. For reasons unbeknown to me, Republicans like to follow the average Joe. While Democrats look for above average intelligence in their leadership.

George W. Bush barely graduated from college and ruined every business he ever had, then he ruined the country. John McCain crashed half a dozen military plans before finally getting captured. He got a job in government because his father was an admiral. He then married into one of the wealthiest and well connected families in Arizona and ran for public office. Sarah Palin who finally graduated from college after trying out three of four different ones, was touted as the future of the party. This Republican heroine went from the mayor of a small town who tried to ban books from the public library to the governor of a state with more grizzly bears than people. Michael Steele was elected to head the party. The fact that he was almost expelled from college because of poor grades didn’t seem to matter. It also didn’t matter that he got his law degree in night school and failed the Maryland bar. It was also immaterial that the company he started, The Steele Group, made so little money that he almost lost his house. Then there is the voice of the party, Rush Limbaugh. He became a conservative political commentator and the titular head of the party. He rose to national fame despite his two semesters of college in which he flunked everything including a modern ball room dancing class.

When you consider the roster of Rhodes Scholars, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, and Harvard Law Review presidents on the Democrats team, the Republican problem is clear. The Republicans are trying to win major league games with minor league players.