Posted by
Patrick Henry on Friday, April 29, 2011 1:05:40 PM
India is famed for its system of social stratification by which citizens are identified
("reserved") by caste. Each caste was assigned function such as warrior, hunter,
ruler, servant and so on. There were five such castes, and then there were those
classified as "outcastes" who were deemed untouchables and thus insignificant. Those
lucky enough to be born into a higher caste enjoyed the benefits of a form of
affirmative action on steroids wherein the best education and guaranteed wealth was
a birthright. The chances of a member of the serving caste becoming a high public
official were virtually nil.
European settlers came to America to escape a system in which every man was
pre-judged by his family history and social status. Declaring the belief that "all men
are created equal," they forged a nation in which people were judged and rewarded
not on the basis of heritage but on the basis of achievement. Modern Americans
scorn India's historical caste system as discriminatory and unjust.
However, when it comes to aspiring to the presidency, the USA seems to practice
its own version of the caste system which is just as rigid and just as discriminatory.
If you haven't amassed a personal fortune (Trump, Obama), become a celebrity (Palin,
Huckabee) or been associated with big business (Romney, Cain) the odds against your
ever ascending to the presidency are long indeed.
A winning presidential campaign in modern America costs upwards of a billion
dollars. Donald Trump can finance his own campaign. Obama, who made $1.7
million last year alone and has the bottomless coffers of the unions and liberal
political action committees behind him will not struggle to ante up the requisite
entry fee. For the others, it will be an uphill and probably losing battlle in
which they will operate at a huge financial disadvantage They will likely be
unable to buy an hour of prime time major network time at the 11th hour to plead
their case as Obama did in the last election. And as for the Average Joe who owns
the neighborhood hardware store, well, he can just forget it.
Another caste identifier is education. For a number of years, and never more so
than in the current administration, government has been overwhelmingly infested
by graduates of Harvard and other Ivy League schools. Both they and their alma
maters have been at great pains to portray their education as somehow superior
to those who graduated from, say, Stanford, Duke, Texas or Notre Dame. Harvard
professors seem enamored of the notion that if you put the smartest people in the
world in a room together, they can solve any problem. The facts prove otherwise.
Despite the glut of Harvard grads in the Obama administration gas is at $4 per
gallon and rising, there is no coherent energy policy that works, the nation is
embroiled in a bevy of lawsuits pitting states against their federal government,
the nation's resources are drained daily by the growing horde of illegal aliens
and the country is drowning in unsustainable debt and deficit. So much for the
smartest people in the world.
Our caste system in which only those wealthy Harvard educated members of
the "political class" need apply for White House vacancies is terminally ill. It
is so because it is based on the tripartite falsehoods that intellect trumps wisdom
that financial capacity implies the ability to lead and govern and that political
acumen is a substitute for character. Does anyone in their right mind, given the
current state of the union, actually believe that from the mass of humanity in
America Barack Obama is really the wisest, the most able and honest person
for the job of president?
Instead of a wise, balanced leader who solves real problems and tells the
truth, America is saddled with a dithering neophyte who makes (mostly bad)
decisions applying inadequate solutions to problems after it is too late to
fix them (Gulf oil spill. Libya, the deficit, etc.) When he speaks, far from
being transparent, he seems a master dissembler trying to persuade an
ignorant mob that black is actually white. Is that really the best America
can do? If so, no wonder the Chinese are rapidly overtaking us as the world's
most powerful nation.
If America is to be led by the brightest and best, and that is necessary now
more than ever before, then we have to find a way to break out of this caste
system that leads us down the primrose path of servitude to incompetence.
America needs real people, people of character as well as wisdom, people
who have accomplished something in the real world other than running for
office, and people who will tell the truth and let the chips fall where they
may. We must get to a place where a candidates burning desire for
continuance in office (power) does not impose the ubiquitous "Peter
Principle" upon the highest station in the land. We must face the fact that if
we want government that works, we must somehow turn to those who have,
in private life, demonstrated creative problem solving skills and actually
achieved at a superior level.
How can America achieve leadership that reflects voter values instead
of trying to dictate them, applies American ingenuity and entrepreurialism
instead of demonizing it and practices real transparency because it has
nothing whatever to hide? How indeed? More in my next post.