One of the more surprising problems with the Republican Party is that they behave like a union.

They promote according to seniority – not merit. They can’t get rid of the bad ones, they’ve got no incentive to work hard, and they’re able to get themselves really nice benefits.

When the Republicans won back the Senate in 2014, I thought for sure that they’d challenge Mitch McConnell for Senate Majority Leader. To my knowledge, the idea never even came up. It was just assumed that McConnell would be it. This was just yet another example of the Republicans promoting according to seniority instead of merit.

This was just like how McCain became the nominee in 2008, and Romney in 2012. Obama was incredibly beatable, in my opinion. (Hell, I always thought I would have destroyed him in the debates.) Instead, we got John McCain, who was committed to nice-ing him to death with his “reach across the aisle” approach. Only in the Republican Party would the old guy who’s put in his time be rewarded – despite his small chance of winning.

This is the same party that gave George Bush as the answer to Bill Clinton, and most notably, Bob Dole prior to that. Neither seemed to have any understanding of conservatism. Even when they made the right decision, they never provided any evidence they understood why what they were doing was the right thing. (If they did know, they certainly had no inclination to share their logic with the rest of the country.)

The Republican Party is not without its stars. There have definitely always been people who were unafraid to articulate and stand by their conservatism. (Mike Lee, Mark Meadows, and Louie Gohmert, to name a few.) But the GOP has always kept those people in their place for fear of how the media would crush them.

It’s ironic that as the merits of unions – and the inherently corrupt nature of public unions – has become an issue of national debate, it’s clear that the Republican Party conducts its business almost exactly like a union.

And they’re getting the same sorts of results, too.