What’s Wrong With Being Elite?
October 28th, 2008 by BigBlueFrogThis word “elite” has been thrown around like an expletive for the last couple of years, and I’m not sure at what point being “elite” stopped being a good thing. Our founding fathers were considered, by themselves and their peers, as the elite. Until recently, we’ve always tried to chose as our leaders people we felt were better suited to govern that the average Joe — whether he was a plumber or otherwise employed.
The Founding Fathers established the Senate as the elite house of the legislature. They knew that the vulgar herd cannot be trusted with their own governance. The will of the people can be swayed by religious fervor, empty nationalist rhetoric and appeals to fear or hate of one group or another. It was never their intention that the uneducated and culturally sheltered among us should ever be allowed complete control. The House is our Commons, and the Senate our House of Lords. It’s no coincidence that the House deliberations so often devolve into shouting, crying and table-pounding. It’s also no coincidence that all three of our Senator/candidates are elites trying to wrap themselves in the cloak of mediocrity in order to garner votes.
What may be harder to explain is how the hockey-mom from small-town Alaska ended up being having the lowest approval of the four candidates. Perhaps, as a nation we know better than to hand the reins of government to someone so unprepared to lead. Forget executive experience. Bush and Clinton had that. Give me intelligence, thoughtfulness, wisdom, reserve and gravitas; in a word - elites.
I voted for Bush in 2000 because he said that, though he wasn’t the smartest guy on the ballot, he would gather around him a team of the best and the brightest; he lied. Even when he did chose talented, intelligent advisers, he ignored their advice and marginalized them. Forget his lies about WMD’s and links between Hussein and Al-Qaeda. This one lie, that he would compensate for his own lack of knowledge, is the overriding error of the Bush administration. He failed the American people by failing to call on those elites to fill in his numerous blanks and complete the executive package.
Look around you. Unless you work for some political think-tank or are being raised at an orphanage for genius foundlings, the people around you are, by and large, unqualified to be President of the United States. For that matter, look in the mirror. I have, and what I see doesn’t look very presidential.
It’s time for us to go back and set a standard for our political leaders. They should be the best and the brightest. They should be the wisest and the most intelligent among us. They should have a passion for leadership, not just an ego and an eye for the highest office in the land.
They should be the elite.
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