My serious Republican friends (think of people like Chris Wallace and Charles Krauthammer) worry.
They worry about this trend toward “unserious” politicians getting elected.
They worry about “what it says about voters” who elect Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, and (very soon) Kid Rock.
These serious Republicans long for the days of serious men and serious matters. Of gray flannel suits beneath salt-and-pepper hair belonging to Yale grads and Harvard Law professors who can, on occasion, in the right circumstances, with just the right audience, shock the world with an (are you ready for this?) off-color joke!
The joke’s the thing.
The joke.
These serious Republicans decry the “joke” candidates. The joke president. The joke governor of Alaska.
But the joke’s on them.
And it ain’t very funny.
If you went to Yale like your great grandfather and you have a place in the Hamptons and your help drives a hybrid, Kid Rock looks like a novelty.
But if you drive a truck or operate a forklift in a steel plant, Kid Rock is real and Paul Ryan’s the (lame) joke.
To the 90% who make America run, who fight our wars and splurge by taking the family to Applebee’s, Kid Rock is real. Mitch McConnell’s the (lame) joke.
Once upon a time, those serious Yale alums with gray hair and gray suits got the job done. They stood up to the Soviet Union. They attended VFW meetings. They took their duty more seriously than they took themselves.
But that Ivy League gentry-entrenched establishment class of the Cold War era gave birth to a pussy generation of narcissists who take nothing seriously but their own selfies. And they take those selfies damn serious.
Chris Wallace thinks Kid Rock’s a novelty candidate. But tens of millions of us laugh at Chris Wallace. When he’s trying to be serious.
These divergent views of American politics won’t be reconciled. One will beat the other into submission. It’ll take a generation or two before the losers are bred out of the culture. But they the losers will be bred out. Like Neanderthals.
I’m betting on the Kid Rock side to win. The joke is the GOP leadership who were handed a mandate and used it for toilet paper. They can be bred out of existence in a generation.