Not a member? Sign up now
Is the Republican party doing well because it's full of attractive people?
By James Brady RyanNovember 8th, 2010, 2:25 pmComments (3)
It's a cliche by this point: Republicans are young and sexy, Democrats are haggard and homely. I'm not sure when this trope began, but it certainly became huge when Sarah Palin was chosen to run for VP in 2008. And it seems like the recent election has only reinforced this conception. New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser — who is insane, it should be noted — examined the new class of Republican officials and did not find them wanting in sexiness:
Today, tax-cutters who wield lip liner as skillfully as budget-slashing red pens trump spendthrift lefties in baggy pants. No longer does personal sacrifice and public service equal the failure to shave one's legs.
"I really think that the turning point came when Scott Brown was elected -- not despite his nude pictures in Cosmo, but because of them," said Politics Daily columnist Walter Shapiro.
Peyser cites figures like South Carolina Governor-elect Nikki Haley, Florida Senator-elect Marco Rubio, and wackadoo Representative Michele Bachmann to prove her point. (She's not entirely wrong. What follows is a short list of Republicans who I would totally do: Rubio, Scott Brown, and Aaron Schock. But I would feel shame afterwards.)
What is it that drives this idea, readers? Obviously there's no reason to think that one political party would be more or less attractive than any other, but this is something I've seen several times. Is it just a mean-spirited attack by one side of the political divide, or is there something else that makes everyone think the Republicans are smokin'? Whatever the reason, hopefully people are not just voting with their downstairs brain.
Commentarium (3 Comments)
Wow, good-looking people make more attractive candidates in the media age? Has this really been news since JFK? Sure, at the moment, there's been a focus on the good-looking Republicans, but it's not been that long since Obama was photographed in his swimsuit (I think Scanner actually ran an item on it). Young, fresh-faced, healthy-bodied people are always going to have a plus in the political (or, for that matter, any) realm.
I think the bogglement, profrobert, isn't that the attractive do well in politics. It's when did Republicans started fielding anyone even moderately good-looking? Traditionally, younger people skew Democratic; and as everyone knows, younger = more attractive (that's sarcasm, for our humor-impaired commenters). I think it's just because you can see the money on these people. That's its own category of hot.
Well, ThinkyWritey, Reagan was telegenic in an elderly sort of way, but yes, I agree that there have been a spate of good-looking, younger Republican candidates lately. But the "hot conservative" image goes back at least 20-25 years to the likes of Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter (who is scary looking now but was quite pretty in the late '80s).