Elitists and Citizen Statesmen

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The discussion turned to the aging process, and during that portion of the conversation I quipped, "The older you get the more things travel southward. At this rate, by the time I'm 80, all of my body parts will droop into my shoes."

My wife threw me a look that told me she did not appreciate the joke, especially the read-between-the-lines message. A couple of the folks in the group laughed. A young man with hair possibly two millimeters long, and tattoos from neck to waist and shoulders to wrists (along with a few knuckle letters) says, "And this is the guy who wants to be on the City Council."

The statement revealed a prevalent opinion by people of what a public servant ought to be. Based on the statement, and conversations I've had with folks that think like him, the attitude of the voters is often that the public officials they vote into office should exhibit superior intellect, ethics, and personal standards.

While I agree with that line of thinking, the average voter has taken their expectations to such an extreme that any perceived infraction, no matter how minor, is a complete betrayal of their trust. The bar has been set so high that no human being is ever capable of satisfying voter expectations. Therefore, all politicians, as far as the voter is concerned, are failures.

I agree with their sentiments to a point, but I do not agree with the extreme nature of it.

The politicians, however, have taken the voter's opinion so literally that they see themselves as elite, and intellectual. In fact, the politicians have come to the conclusion that they not only must make decisions for us, but that they know better than us. Out of this rising attitude of elitism has grown a smugness that has made the political servants come to believe that they are somehow members of a ruling class that is above the people, and established to rule over the people.

The American Revolution was fought to free us from exactly that kind of tyranny. The Founding Fathers intended the representatives of the people to be statesmen, not politicians. The members of government were expected to be citizens who temporarily gave their time to serve, and then when finished, went back to their lives as a citizen, to live under the laws they participated in enacting. This is why there are no litmus tests, and few requirements, for an elected position.

Elected officials do not have to have a college degree, and justices don't have to have been judges, or even lawyers, for that matter. Like the U.S. Constitution, government is supposed to be of the people, by the people, and for the people. Elitism should have no place in the halls of Congress, in the White House, or inside the robes of the Justices of the Supreme Court.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary