My pet theory about many conservative, Libertarian and Objectivist leaders is that a lot of them are bitter high school debate club nerds and failed student council presidents getting their revenge on all the “cool kids” and girls who didn’t recognise their intellectual superiority (or, in reality, saw them for the arrogant pricks they were). “I’ll show them,” they think, and proceed to turn their rhetorical training toward a political career designed to make the “Coastal elites” and other “lesser and undeserving” people as miserable as possible.
Prime examples include Newt Gingrich, Stephen Miller, and Ted Cruz. You could see Cruz’s inner debate club nerd come out during the GOP primary debates, where he was treating the moderators as if they were judges who could hand him a win and giving little thought to the studio or home audiences.
