Groundhog Day means six more weeks of ridiculous

Thanks to the 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day,” in which time gets stuck in a loop, the term has become a catchphrase for situations that seem to repeat themselves.

How do we know we’re stuck in such a loop?

For one, the New England Patriots just won the Super Bowl.

Secondly, we know we’re in a loop when, in the middle of a national crisis, someone in government says or does something clueless.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross wears a $4,000 watch and $600 custom-made slippers that bear the U.S. Department of the Treasury seal.

Estimates of his personal fortune vary, so we’ll go with a conservative $700 million. So, how is it he doesn’t appear to have a nickel’s worth of common sense?

In the throes of the recent government shutdown, Ross was flummoxed that furloughed federal workers were resorting to food banks, suggesting they instead should take out loans.

With no proof of income?

The notion that workers should, in essence, pay interest on their own paychecks proves yet again that in America you don’t have to be smart to get rich.

Stride in, crawl out

The “wealth equals competency in government” theory should have run its course in 1992, when Ross Perot, the wacky Texas billionaire and third-party candidate, upended President George H.W. Bush’s re-election.

But it refuses to die, like a “Groundhog Day” sequel starring Dracula.

There’s a reason even the smartest, most politically experienced presidents stride into office but practically crawl out: It’s the toughest job in the world. There’s no autonomy, only blame. On the day a president leaves office, it’s all he can do to keep his wife from sprinting to the helicopter.

Yet, every three years, billionaires, celebrities and CEOs pay consultants lots of money to convince them they have a shot. But we’re seeing in real time what happens when unprepared, unqualified people are thrust into positions of power.

Last week, a president who doesn’t read and can’t spell publicly suggested his national security team members return to school after they delivered a threat assessment different from the one he made up.

Inside the house

We also know it’s a “Groundhog Day” because the Democrats can’t resist snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

All last week, newly elected Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia was getting pounded for supporting a bill dealing with fetal viability and late-term abortion. On Friday, the Virginia Pilot published reports of a personal yearbook page of Northam’s that shows one man in blackface and another costumed as a Klansman.

In 1984.

I smell toast.

We also know we’re trapped in a Groundhog Day loop as evidenced by the number of candidates, mostly Democrats, testing the presidential waters.

The exodus scene in “The Ten Commandments” didn’t include this many people. Among them is former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, a New York City billionaire and self-proclaimed “centrist independent” with zero experience in government or public service.

Stop me if you’ve seen this movie. Democratic Party operatives are frantic because, this time, the call is coming from inside the house.

Schultz should be commended for giving Starbucks employees health insurance, stock options and college tuition, but those were decisions he didn’t have to run past a recalcitrant Congress.

He also once thought it would be a good idea for his baristas to broach complete strangers — buying hot cups of coffee — about race relations.

No amount of money, no level of media coverage, can disguise the fact Schultz is yet another unqualified person who thinks he’d be a good president because he was successful in business, all because our culture views wealth and celebrity as qualifiers. Stop me if you’ve seen this movie.