The Passion Deficit

The old joke is this: What is the difference between ignorance and apathy? Answer: I don't know and I don't care...

I have been doing quite a bit of mulling and cogitating as of late on the state of our state. In particular, what the heck happened in the last two or three elections. The once powerful Grand Old Party, which stood for so much, has become a minority party on the national stage. All they can do now is attempt to slow down or stop progressive initiatives. The Republican Party in Minnesota is in worse shape. After this last election, they are one step away from becoming irrelevant. There are many reasons for this, but the one that really stands out  for me is passion. In this era of deficits, the Republicans have developed a very large and growing passion deficit.

Shortly after the 2012 election a very strange, yet not unexpected thing happened. One of Mitt Romney's son's was being interviewed about the election. Out of the clear blue he said "My Dad never really wanted to be President". If that did not sum things up. The past few candidates (except GWB) looked as if they were running because it was "their turn". All good men, they were running as if going through the motions. Mailing it in.

 

To me, a viable candidate these days needs to exhibit the following traits:

• Be Qualified - show the electorate that you can hit the ground running.
• Be Truthful - people long for "truth tellers" - tell the truth even if painful.
• Be Passionate - have the "fire in the belly" -  you want this job so bad it hurts.

I look at Mitt Romney for these traits. Was he more qualified than the sitting President? Absolutely. Did he practice veracity? Yes, sometimes too much (remember the 47% comment?). Did he have enough passion? Nope. During the first presidential debate, Mitt showed his stuff. He had Obama on the ropes. His numbers went up, the President's numbers went down. All Mitt needed to do was go in for the kill during the next two debates. He did not need to look mean, he just needed to hammer Obama on the bad economy and Benghazi. He did not do it. He allowed the Chicago machine to twist his words and then all Mitt could do was play defense. Many blame Super Storm Sandy for the turn around. I agree to an extent. However, I think it was the lack of passion shown in the last two debates which did him in.

Because Mitt had a passion problem, so did the Republican base. It has been reported over three million fewer voters showed up to vote Republican than did in the 2008 election. If the Republican base had turned out as expected (or hoped for), we might have a President Romney right now. On the other hand, as bad as this President has been across the board, his base turned out. Democrats don't seem to have a problem with passion, no matter who they are voting for. It has been said in the past that if Bullwinkle the Moose was on the ticket, Democrats would vote for him.

An even better example of passion happened in the Minnesota governor race in 2010. Mark Dayton beat (by a very narrow margin) a very qualified Republican opponent. The Democrats excited their base to vote for a very flawed candidate. How flawed? Time magazine (not a "right wing" publication) in 2006 portrayed Mark Dayton as follows:

He is one of America's five worst senators. He had “erratic behavior,” his tendency to complain about “basic facts of the job,” and his penchant for Yippie-ish legislative stunts like proposing a Department of Peace and Nonviolence. The reporters dubbed him “The Blunderer.”

And yet with all that, as well as a myriad of personal problems, he now sits in the Governor's office. Excited by the victory in 2010, In 2012 the Democratic base really came out in numbers and beat the heck out of a decimated Republican Party. In two years, Republicans lost the Governor, House and Senate. The tax and spend orgy is only just beginning and it will be very hard to get any political power back into Republican hands.

Politics is similar to working in business or playing sports. Many times I have seen people promoted at work not because they were the most qualified, but because they wanted it so bad and worked  very hard to make it happen. In sports, many times we have seen teams play other teams of higher talent and then emerge victorious just because they wanted to win so bad. Passion. Wanting it so bad it hurts. Failure in not and option passion. Fire in the belly passion.

Many out here in the land of grass roots have passion. Many are simmering with passion. We are not satisfied with the status quo. We await someone to lead us, someone to take our passion and turn it into victory. Someone to take back our state, our nation, our party. We need someone who not only wants to win, but also knows how to do it. Until that happens, we will be stuck on the sidelines watching the other side run the show and ruin the country.