What next?

While I'm happy to see Sarah Palin head back to Alaska I am not happy about the bashing the Republican party has taken. Instead, I'm hopeful that this lost will lead to their day of reckoning a little sooner so they can rebuild the GOP (or a new party) as a true conservative party that will not pander to the religious loonies on the right, spend like there is no tomorrow but leave the bill until tomorrow and focus on making the majority of Americans poorer while making sure those with the right connections succeed (I'm not optimistic about the later).

The GOP needs to clean house and get the conservative movement back to their base. They used to be the party of small government and business, doing what they thought was best for the country as a whole. Better, they had the ability to debate with the Democrats to show voters why their ideas were correct. Though you may have disagreed with their conclusions, their opinions were generally well thought out and informed-- a good example would be dissenting US Supreme Court opinions where a justice(s) demonstrates how he or she came up with a differentconclusion than the majority based on a different philosophy . Now they seem to argue on fear: the other side will raise taxes (ignoring that they raised the debt so much with their drunken spending that any candidate will have little choice), he hangs out with terrorists, he is a Muslim etc, without the facts to back up their allegations.

They've chased away the best and the brightest in an elite intellectual purge, seeming to prefer the ignorant masses. I'm not saying the educated don't make mistakes: John Kennedy's best and brightest leading us into Vietnam being a prime example. However, there are two sides to every argument and I prefer a well thought out opinion over a "it feels right" approach. Poorly defined, bitter vitriol, complete with name calling, can not compare to a full debate on the issues, though it does make for a better sound bite.

There is nothing wrong with representing the blue collar, unprofessional Americans who live and move in a different world than professionals with different concerns. However, that can't succeed on the world stage. The GOP lost the election in part by scaring away voters, even the Joe 6 Packs, with a woefully inept Sarah Palin. The political qualities that make for a good Governor of a small (in population) rural state such as Alaska do not necessarily transfer well to the national stage. Yet, that could have been overcome with a crash course on current positions. The public would understand that the Governor of Alaska, while well versed in problems facing Alaska, would not be up to date on national issues. However the Governor seemed incapable of adjusting. More scary, the faithful kept lowering the bar, trying to convince Americans that the under study to a 72 year old POW cancer surviving President doesn't need to be smart. Americans, scared at what could happen, refused to support the ticket and McCain lost in a year where it would have been hard for the GOP to win anyway. Yet the GOP thinks the solution for 2012 is to not only go ultra conservative but to pick more empty shells to run for office and to manipulate. The well educated, with informed and reasoned opinions on domestic and foreign affairs need not apply. Meritocracy has no place in the new GOP.

Presidents such as Abe Lincoln or T.Roosevelt would not be welcomed today as they were intellectuals who were somewhat progressive for their day. Nixon would have been impeached not because of Watergate, but because he dared to talk to communist China. Reagan would never be able to have drinks with Tip O'Neil because O'Neil was the Democratic speaker of the house. The party that was less than thrilled with Senator McCain because he wasn't socially conservative enough for them deserves what they get. The sad thing is that blue collar workers, who they profess to love, the college educated professionals and the white collar, but perhaps not educated, middle class in the service industry have many things in common. Yet the GOP has chased away the college educated who could lead the next generation and, frankly, has not treated the white collar middle class that well either so they could focus on the fears of a few who do not like the way the world is changing.

The party seems to have embraced a policy that the more uneducated you are, the more qualified you are to lead the nation. By that logic Andy Taylor is as qualified to be the Supreme Court's chief justice as John Roberts. There is appeal and there is the ability to lead the nation. Just because you are successfully running your small computer business does not mean you have the skills to immediately be the second in command at IBM, yet that is what the GOP expected the Kool Aid drinkers to accept. 8 years of go by your guts and not weigh the consequences of alternate options has left this country in a horrible mess. It is one thing for your local leaders to be a Joe 6 pack, it is another for the national leaders.

As to Palin herself, not only was she unqualified at the moment, but she seemed to show a lack of intellectual curiosity. You don't need to have a Harvard or Yale degree to be intelligent. Heck, you do not even need to go to college, I've known many incredibly intelligent people over the years who did not go to college. I've also known plenty of college graduates who I thought were idiots. However, even those without a formal education stayed up on current events and could question what was being said.

I do not want the man or woman running our country to be the one I most want to hang out with, I want the one who has the ability to do the best job, whether they went to Columbia University, Queens College or Newark High School. Palin, who could barely be bothered to read briefing papers before her debate, was not that person. I may not agree with John Roberts, Pat Buchanan, Sam Alito or Newt Gingrich, but their positions are generally well thought out. They could properly frame an argument with a well balanced position. However, if they were starting their careers today, I wonder if they would be welcomed in the GOP of today? Perhaps, or perhaps they would be chased away because they are intellectual elitists.

All of us, liberal, conservative, moderate whatever are stronger when both sides can frame an intellectual argument to try to convince us of their points. We need people from all sides of the political spectrum with intellectual curiosity, analytical talents, and problem-solving skills typical of intensely intelligent people to be our leaders. Anything less is inadequate. Disdain for the intellectual, creative thinking base is not a good thing. If we think two party rule is bad, wait until we have one party rule.