Do Better

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Confucius agonized over how best to get intelligent, ethical people involved in government and public administration. Today, we are no nearer to solving this dilemma than he was. The only thing we do know is that representative democracy as practiced in America in the twenty-first century is not the answer. Good people -- the active brains and the live hearts -- do not run for public office very often. And when they do, their chances of actually getting elected are slim and none. Electability is based on financial resources, not intelligence, ability, or good intentions. Getting elected and staying in office means abandoning your ethics in favor of the ethics of those willing and able to finance your campaign. A good person keeps his ethics and instead abandons his quest for public office.

The practical upshot of this is that ninety-five percent of public assembles are populated by party hacks (John Boenher), children of wealthy parents (John McCain), dedicated sociopaths (Paul Ryan), and functioning psychotics (Michele Bachmann). A look at the current Congress would leave Confucius scratching his ancient beard. A nation of three hundred and twenty million souls -- many of them well educated, high minded and public spirited, energetic and empathetic, and patriotic -- should be able to do better than the parade of human refuge that file in and out of Washington every two years. In dairy production, the cream always rises to the top. In a democracy, the complete opposite is true. The best part of humanity languishes at the bottom of the political barrel and the worst people rise to prominence and power.