Election criteria

One of my favorite sayings: "Smart people tend to hire people smarter than themselves, dumb people tend to hire people dumber than themselves".

How does this work in the US? Let's see...

• We've got Bush for 2(!) terms.


• Elitist is a dirty word in politics.


• Incidentally, we've got Bush because Kerry was an elitist.


• The other reason we've got Bush is because a whole bunch of morons thought that Bush is more like them which is probably true.


• Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania primary because voters without college education thought she is more like them. Which is both right and wrong - she's most certainly not like them, but she will definitely pander to them.


• There are no scientists in US Senate.


• But the most powerful Republican at the apex of Republican power in Congress was an exterminator. Yes: as in killing roaches.


• As a result, when confronted with statistics that clearly show that abstinence-only sex education in school does not work, a Republican congressman declares statistics "elitist".


• One third of US teenagers drops out of high school. Another third is not prepared for the next stage of life — either productive work or some form of post-secondary education".


• A quarter of US teenagers cannot identify Adolf Hitler. Large percentage of them think that US was allied with Germany against Russia during WWII. Both trends a boon to neocons because calling someone a "new Hitler" gets quick results from the dumbed down populace.


• Incidentally, there's probably not another place on earth where "neoCON" would be a legitimate name for a political current, not a stigma.


• Especially since they have actually perpetrated a classic Nigerian Scam leading to the Iraq War.

I think THE prerequisite for an effective democracy is an educated demos. This we definitely do not have.