I’m always frustrated by the non-smart…even dumb…candidates for office in the U.S. But I’m mostly angered by U.S. voters who don’t vote for smart people.
“The question is as old as democracy: should the highest office go to the most intellectually able candidate, or to the most temperamentally ‘normative’ (other words for normative include ‘unexceptional’ and ‘mediocre’)?
“In the rest of the developed world, the contest between brain and ‘gut’ was long ago resolved in favor of brain. In America the dispute still splits the nation….Nine years, if you remember, the populace looked on in compliant silence as the president avowedly ‘went with this gut’ into Baghdad.”
Thanks to Martin Amis’ article “Among the Clowns” in the 12-26-11/01-01-12 issue of Newsweek.