The Shiny Ball Theory of Politics

If a four-year-old child walks into a toy store, and you tell him he can have any ball he wants. Does he pick the custom made leather football for $59.95? No. 

Does he pick the signature series Michael Jordan NBA basketball for $48.57? No.

Does he pick the official New York Yankees endorsed baseball for $34.99? No.

The four-year-old walks over to the bin of shiny bright red, green and blue plastic balls for $2.95, picks one and proudly hands it to his mother to pay for.

The four-year-old does not understand the dog will bite through it the first day or it will be scuffed and dull within a week.  He does not understand a high quality ball will provide a great experience for years and years to come. The four-year-old only understands bright and shiny in the moment.

That is the way I see political campaigns. 

Leaving Trump aside for a moment, we have two freshman senators Cruz and Rubio whose careers are exceedingly limited. They speak well, they dress well and they have memorized the proper dogma, but they have never been in charge of anything, never had to allocate resources, never been accountable for any of their actions.

On the other hand, we have two governors Bush and Kasich (and Christie, if you want to add a third) who are top performing governors, have proven themselves to be capable leaders, whose actions and results have been highly successful judged by the most important measuring stick, they were re-elected in their states. They are the highest quality people available for the job from our political system (remember at this point we are not yet considering Trump).

And yet, the shiny ball senators are leading in the polls against the high quality, tough and proven governors. Does this make sense?

Of course, it does from a propaganda and mass influence standpoint. The “low information voter” chooses based on the information forced upon him. Our educational system has failed to teach our kids to properly participate in elections. The people who take the trouble to evaluate quality are too few and not as influential as a 30-second campaign spot during “The Walking Dead.”

Trump may actually have the combination of shininess and quality needed, but its the shininess that is keeping him in front right now.  One could easily say Bernie Sanders is riding on shine, not substance.

It is still my hope a governor will emerge from either South Carolina or Nevada as a contender. If Trump emerges victorious over such a contender he will have truly earned the nomination.

If Trump only defeats two freshman senators then the RNC and the conservative political system, in my opinion, are broken. If the Democrats nominate Sanders, an avowed socialist with no substance, then their political system is broken.

Did we not learn anything from the last time a freshman senator was elected?