Elite- 1. a person too intelligent and contemplative. 2. a person unable to respond to questions in ten words or less. 3. a stubborn refusal to concede the simplicity of reality. 4. a worldview of complexity and nuance. 5. thoroughly unqualified for public office.
When did intelligence become one of the deadly sins of American politics? How did we allow intelligent, academic, and elite to be corrupted and labeled as derogatory adjectives? Should we not seek intelligence in a presidential candidate? Do we not want the president of the United States to be elite? The word originates from elit which means literally a person elected to office.
Americans demand that the president of the United States be “one of us.” We settle for mediocrity. We reward simplicity. We demonize intelligence and eloquence as vices.
Why do we praise Harvard, Yale and Columbia for producing the best scientists, doctors and lawyers in the global competitive market compared to China and India , but we condemn the Ivy league’s political progeny as ‘elitist’ domestically? No candidate should have to apologize to the electorate for an Ivy League degree. David Brooks, of the New York Times, wrote last week that “Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.”
Intelligence is not the only quality of a good president. Many of the “best and the brightest” of the 42 [Grover Cleveland is counted twice] have stumbled and failed, but so have the most “experienced”. Intelligence must never be a disqualifier or a hindrance to running for any office, but especially the presidency.
We must abandon the myth that anyone with a handshake and the desire can be president. I welcome a president who is more capable, skilled, and intelligent than I am. I want my president to be elite. I want my president to think before he responds, and to act based on fact and reason, not emotion or instinct.
The electorate should never deny themselves the best candidate because of unwillingness to accept our own limitations. |
