Patrick Ruffini tries to argue that the GOP repersents the “regular in the sense of apolitical, well grounded in family and community, and as far away from a Beltway mindset as you can get.” Take that one claim for what its worth, but when you look at the evidence that Ruffini uses, you’ll see just how absurd Ruggini’s argument is.
Ruffini’s basic point is that GOP presidential candidates tend not to be lifetime politicians, and developed their political ambitions late in life after sucess in some other field. Democrats, on the other hand, have been involved in politics from a young age and have been scheming for the presidency in their cribs.
For Republicans, there is no contradiction between being an average American with a family, and being a gifted leader. And though Presidents typically exhibit some early ambition, it is usually less prevalent in Republicans than Democrats. Let’s look at the history of the last few Presidential nominations:
- John McCain — probably the most explicitly ambitious of our recent nominees — was first elected to public office at 46 after a career in the military.
- George W. Bush, part of one of the great political families, but “drifted” until later in life; first elected to public office at age 48 after a career in the oil industry
- Bob Dole, the only career politician among recent nominees, was first elected to the Kansas state house at age 27
- George H.W. Bush — successful businessman before winning election to Congress at age 42.
- Ronald Reagan — successful actor before winning his first public office at age 55.
Now look at the Democrats:
- Barack Obama, elected to the Illinois State Senate at age 35, his political ambitions probably date from college
- John Kerry, sailed with Kennedy, ran for Congress at 27, and first elected at 37.
- Al Gore, son of a famous Senator, elected to Congress at 28.
- Bill Clinton, ran for Congress at 28, first elected to public office at 30
- Mike Dukakis, first elected at 29.
- Walter Mondale, campaign manager for Hubert Humphrey at 20, appointed to fill a vacancy at 32.
- Jimmy Carter, peanut farmer, was first elected to the Georgia State Senate at 38. He is probably the last truly normal person the Democrats have nominated.
The contrast between the life experience of our Republican and Democratic political icons is pretty stark. Democrats got their start in politics an average of a decade earlier than the Republicans, winning their first elective office at 33 vs. 44 for the GOP. Most of the Republicans on the list had significant experience in the private sector before entering politics, versus just one Democrat — Jimmy Carter. Another, John McCain, had a full career in the military. In fact, four of five GOP Presidential nominees since 1980 have spent 10 or more years outside of elective office or academia, versus six of seven Democrats who haven’t.
Notice one other difference between the Democratic presidential candidates and the GOP? With the exception of the one lifetime politician, Bob Dole, all the GOP candidates were either born into privileged, political families or actually started their political career much earlier than Ruffini says.
The reason Bush, Bush and MCCain didn’t get into politics in their 20s and 30s was because they didn’t have to.
George HW Bush’s father was Prescott Bush, a very well connected businessman who later went into politics, and was elected to the Senate. HW, because of his position of privilege, didn’t need to work his way up in politics, and was able to run for the House when he was 40. Most politicians (like Humphrey, Mondale, Obama and Clinton) don’t exactly get to start out that way. Because of they didn’t come from wealthy, well connected, political families, they had to start at low levels and work their way up so that they could run for president when they hit middle age.
John McCain came from a very well connected Washington family and too was able to get into politics late because of family connections - this time from his incredibly wealthy wife, whose family generously supported his first senatorial run. It’s also slightly inaccurate to say that McCain started his political career at 46. He was the Navy’s congressional liason when he was 31, a position that he himself described as “real entry into the world of politics and the beginning of my second career as a public servant.”
George W. Bush, well, let me just say that isn’t a sign of normalcy that one could spend the first 40 years of their life drinking and failing at business, only to become governor of Texas at 48.
Reagan is a knotty exception, but Ruffini is making a questionable assertion in saying that he was just an actor before taking office when he was 55. He was head of the Screen Actors Guild in 1946 ( age 35) and after that became a spokesperson for GE. That’s hardly sucess in business, it was instead politicking on behalf of a corporation. The speeches he gave were highly political, and he was removed from his job because of controversy. He then became a full time political activist and was a major, public supporter of Barry Goldwater in 1964. He was not some sort of political neophyte when he ran for governor of California in 1967.
But, then again, I guess it’s hardly surprising that a Republican would conflate extreme privilege with normalcy.
