Newt Gingrich is now the front runner in a discordant Republican primary process as beautiful as angry alligators mating in a swamp or birds fighting over a smeared hamburger wrapper from a fast food dumpster. One might think that troubled times at home and abroad would bring forth American citizens from great traditions of military service, public service, economics, science or notable business careers. Instead Republicans have a field of flawed candidates. If these candidates somehow managed to slip into a conference of distinguished Americans they would be seated at a table by themselves in the corner of the banquet hall fighting over rolls and butter like a flock or voracious grackles. What is the cause of such low brow Republican candidates and a selection process which seems to go against our better nature? Why an ugly bird like Gingrich? 

Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum supports the theory that while birds, for example, may selectively breed based upon perceived prowess, they select mates predominately based upon beauty---linking evolution to age old questions like, "What is art?" and "What is beauty?" If Dr. Prum's theory seems fanciful, he has credence in the discovery that feathers evolved from dinosaur skin---dinofuzz---rather than reptile scales, as well as in the discovery of a new kind of color based on structural components of feathers.  Extrapolating his evolution theory to other fields, Dr. Prum sees the development of Mozart's music as the same underlying form of communication---"an on-going aesthetic process", a "co-evolution ...of production and evaluation". 

With apologies to both Mozart and Dr. Prum, the Republican primary can be best described as a flawed evolutionary process. The problem is that Republicans are looking for an angry bird instead of a beautiful bird. As such they are out of step with nature. 

The Republican birds do not present beautiful plumage.  They present anger and ugliness towards others. And the current chief bird, Gingrich, is the walking antithesis of a pretty bird.. Aside from his fractured marital history, ethics violations, loss of the Speakership, and flaunted monetization of public service,  he recently committed the most ugly mating ritual of all. In the recent CNN debate Gingrich, and in the animal kingdom sense of the word,  publicly presented to the predator neocons  Addington and Wolfowitz---in essence mating himself and his campaign to another war of regime change, this time in Iran.

While Gingrich is ugly the other candidates are not all that pretty. You might think of an archetypal beautiful person as having an appealing physique, good body balance, pleasant facial expressions and high intelligence. Romney is bland, suspended between pretty and ugly. Perry looks to be ready to topple over sideways at any given moment. Bachmann looks like an unexploded mortar shell. Cain has a fact-retention problem. Santorum, a retentive problem---etched in his face. Ron Paul brings to mind the word, dinofuzz. In my opinion the only person on the debate stage who fits the description of a well rounded, intelligent, attractive person is Huntsman. I would suggest to folks from the religious right that after a brief one night stand with Gingrich they switch to Huntsman because even if you believe in the all-in-one-fell-swoop  Intelligent Design instead of Evolution, why screw up God's beautiful landscape with another ugly bird when you can have a pretty bird?  

Perhaps the current turmoil in our country, the worst economic crisis since the great depression, the extreme animosity towards Barack Obama, the low confidence in our political institutions, the distrust of government, the structural unemployment, the lopsided distribution of wealth, the anger being demonstrated in the Republican ranks---perhaps this mishmash of economic foundering, demographic changes, and "rats in a cage" public behavior is signaling change---change that is difficult, but change that is inevitable. Perhaps there actually is a basic evolutionary form in all things that leads to something more perfect, more moderate, more balanced, more beautiful. As such, the Republican primary process and the rise of an ugly bird like Newt Gingrich can be seen as a last ditch attempt to reverse evolution.

For myself, I hope not only that birds become more beautiful but that our country moves toward a more egalitarian and moderate century. I hope that underneath all our turmoil there is a model of the New American Citizen that is ungraciously being born. Gingrich is not that model. He is the opposite of the model. He should be denied the opportunity to lead this country, to lead us away from our better natures and the more beautiful democracy which lies before us.