Return of the Loser
During Watergate, Jimmy Breslin theorized that the Republicans had transcended the Peter Principle with what he called the Principle of Upward Failure, in which one fails worse at each job and rises in the hierarchy until indicted. We see the application of the principle in electoral politics, where the Republican race features businesspersons who repeatedly declared bankruptcy or were richly paid to stop destroying their companies and governors whose own states didn't want them back, such as Christie and Jindal.* The worst of the latter, Scott Walker, has given up the presidential race and returned home to see if he can do more harm there. One of his potential victims, Mike Lowrey, discusses.
*OK, so they let Dr. Carson run, even though he was good at his previous job, perhaps because it has nothing to do with governance.
*OK, so they let Dr. Carson run, even though he was good at his previous job, perhaps because it has nothing to do with governance.