Lately, my view of politics in this country has changed slightly. While in the past I was more willing to empathize with liberals in this country, I am less patient with them now. Remember also that I make a clear distinction between the “liberals” I can deal with (classical liberals) and the “liberals” that I cannot stomach (in a word: Marxists).

To all the liberals out there of all stripes, I get it, and in general I think that most conservatives get it, liberals do not like discriminating against the little guy and feel bad when some prosper and others do not. I understand that sentiment. What I do not understand is the self-delusion that many liberals suffer from where they believe that the great bureaucratic, inefficient, and colossally expensive monster that we call government can and will solve all of these problems. The leftist liberals are a lost cause, they have come to believe that everything American is evil and that the individual must be reined in by the collective at all costs, not cognizant of the fact that they can only legally have these counter-establishment ideas because of the establishment itself; we already know that counter-establishment ideas in leftist dictatorships result in imprisonment, torture, and death. Irony of ironies. This is not new, but what has lately pushed me away from the trying to bridge the divide is that modern politicians are mediocre leaders in extraordinary times. I am now even less patient with these mediocre personalities that dominate the public discourse.

Let me be clear: most of the people that I hear or read do not understand what they are talking about. Here I want to point out a great difference between people who truly understand things and people who pretend to understand things. The first group is what this country desperately needs to fix the mess that we are currently in and, unfortunately, the second group is what we are electing to office. Let us be frank, in the 2008 presidential election, with the economy as the biggest issue, the American public was asked to choose between a War Hero (and Air Force pilot) and a lawyer specializing in Constitutional Law (and a community organizer)… where were the economists? Where were the people with business experience (Romney supporters can chime in here)? What was most indicative of the irrationality that had gripped America after years of Bush mismanagement, we did not choose the War Hero despite the fact that we were in the middle of two wars!

The majority is now waking up from this mass hypnosis and to those former liberals I say “welcome back to sanity,” but the damage is done. Just think about how the current administration and Congress has decided to focus on tax increases, cap-and-tax, closing Guantanamo, and especially health care reform while unemployment spiked into the double digits. Wouldn’t the common sense approach be to focus all of our energies on the economy, period? Where are the brilliant leaders in government? Giving the banking industry billions and billions of dollars has saved many financial firms, but the rest of the economy is still ailing and all that the government has done is kick the problem down the road by drastically increasing the national debt. This is not a solution, it is a delaying tactic and will continue to drag out the recession. America needs to stop settling for the mediocrity espoused by our political parties and strive, instead, for American excellence. I do not care about folksy, small town politicians who I can culturally connect with or an everyman I can have a beer with, I care if they are clear-thinkers with America’s best interest in mind and at heart. I do not care for Harvard graduates who look down on regular Americans as simple masses who cling only to religion and guns. I want some real, down-to-Earth, intelligent people to stand up and get elected for their merits, for their ideas, and for their devotion to the welfare of this country.

This criticism is directed at both the Republicans and Democrats. For the Republicans, they should not continue to appeal to the cultural base nor continue promoting a populist message while simultaneously going to Washington and becoming immersed in bureaucracy and bowing to special interests. For the Democrats, they should not continue to appeal to the resentment between races and classes while simultaneously going to Washington and becoming immersed in bureaucracy and bowing to special interests. Americans need to support the thinking man’s party and not the populist party. The reason is obvious: populism leads to mass irrationality, like lynch mobs with pitchforks.

Right now, the Republican Party is closer to the thinking man’s party, but they have a lot of work to do and they should do a much better job of promoting their solutions rather than promoting their criticisms. This may run contrary to the beliefs of many “educated” people (group two) who have long caricatured conservatives as country bumpkins, but they are truly mistaken. Democrats promote policies that “feel right.” Democrats are constantly warning that without government the environment will implode, without government Americans will not be able to afford health care, and without government Wall Street will destroy the economy. Leftists simply throw “government” at every problem while conservatives actually have to think of a real-world solution. Conservatives want to use the most powerful organizing force in the world, the free market, to make our society better. The Republican Party needs more true-blue (or real-red) conservatives and less of these populists if it wants to be THE party of the America’s future.

In sum, Americans need to stop rewarding the “feel-good” candidate and start rewarding the candidate with the best ideas. Around the world, many people still equate the word America with excellence… let’s not lose the power of the American brand by falling into mass irrationality and mediocrity.

-AG