GOP Voices Disagreement

One of the things that happened when politics became more polarized is that people elected those that met their very - very - specific views, rather than the most qualified candidate. For obvious reasons, this occurred between parties, but less obvious is that it also occurred intra-parties.

That is, when deciding WHO would run for their party, Americans selected the one that met their most polarized view.

For the Democrats, this actually ended up being a very good thing. Democrats "valued" (in the polarized sense): Intellectualism, science and social issues. So we generally had Democrats run that met these principles. As much as Republicans may disagree with the ideas, no one can deny that this is a "Good thing" if you are a Democrat.

For the Republicans, this ended up being less advantageous (though it was effective at the time). Republicans "valued": Rigid conservatism, uber-patriotism and the "just like us" mentality. So the Republicans that ran in those areas tended to meet those parameters.

At the time, this was likely a good thing for the Republicans when they were winning the vocal wars. But what has happened is that the Republicans that are currently elected and getting re-elected are individuals that are, quite frankly, not that smart. They ran TOUTING their lack of social superiority, their rigid stance against any form of change, and with a focus on how dissent against a president was "anti-American" rather than actually discussing their qualifications for such an important position.

So that's where we are now. We have a government that is filled with Republicans that are in way over their heads because they were not necessarily the most intelligent Republicans available - rather, they were the ones that represented the LEAST vision but were able to vocalize why this made them better Americans. The GOP, especially in the house, is a vastly underqualified group of individuals trying to represent a party that they do not seem to fully understand.

Republicanism, as a political stance, is not necessarily stupid. I strongly disagree with it, but it has at least an interesting premise. When the people handling it understand how to make concessions for the greater public good, it may even be a useful tool. But the current GOP is a minority that consists solely of people that won by polarizing, rather than by substance. They are in way over their heads, and all they can do now is whine and whine.