The Republican Party is a shadow of its former self. It seems to have lost touch with reality, abandoned real leaders, and given up on facts.
One of the most damaging trends for the Republican Party has been their lack of presidential candidates who have gravitas, meaning they can be taken seriously as national leaders. In 2008 and now in 2012, the American people and world have watched and continue to watch as lightweight Republican candidates are apparently taken seriously by Republican leaders and their fellow GOP candidates.
In 2008, I supported Obama, but John McCain was a serious candidate for President of the United States (POTS). If he had won, I would have been disappointed, but prior to his VP pick, I wouldn’t have been scared.
However, McCain put the fear into me and millions of others and his gravitas was weakened when he chose Sarah Palin as his VP candidate. Through this action, McCain’s seriousness went out the window like a Mickey Mouse helium balloon. This was beyond bad judgment because McCain was saying, as though we were supposed to believe him, that Palin was qualified to take his place as POTUS if anything had happened to him. I swear, if Palin had been a Democratic candidate for VP, I would not have been any more comfortable with her. She is the anti-gravitas candidate. When the Republican Party took her seriously or at least pretended to in 2008, a lot of Americans saw it as bogus.
Now in 2012, we face an array of Republican wanna-be’s for the GOP nomination for POTUS and most of them are light-weights too. I was not a fan of Reagan as a teenager, but his famous question of Walter Mondale “Where’s the beef?” hit home like a knockout punch.
When I see the current Republican field, I have to ask:
Where’s the beef?
Herman Cain is the best example, He hurts the Republican Party because he is not a serious candidate. He has no gravitas. He happily admits that he doesn’t have answers to important questions, but says he will find people who do. That might work in the world of fast food, but not for the POTUS. The POTUS can’t know everything, but they sure as heck better know the important things even if there are, as Cain said, so many things whirling around in his head.
When the GOP field is viewed as a whole and the American people see Cain up there, a lot of Americans are queasy. If Republicans were really serious, Cain would not be up there in the higher echelon. When I think of Herman Cain as a possible POTUS, I feel worried for America. The same goes for Michele Bachmann and some of the others.
I may not agree with them on many things, but I can take Huntsman somewhat seriously given his experience and some sense of the importance of facts.
Palin, Cain, Bachmann, and some of the other GOP candidates over the past two election cycles seem to have lost their grip with reality. Facts don’t matter to them. Democracy depends on many things including freedom and justice, but also I believe that Democracy is a fact-based entity. Democracy depends on facts and for that reason on science. When an entire mainstream party gives up on facts such as the Republican Party has, it damages democracy and America.