Save Us

It just amazes me how much being smart is becoming a handicap in America when it comes to politics and general popularity. In the recent election there was a great demonstration of this in Alabama where one gubernatorial candidate accused the other of "believing in evolution" and "only believing that the Bible is mostly true, not word for word, literally true." What's worse is that the "accused" immediately released a statement that this was not true, that he was a Creationist and did indeed believe that the Bible was word for word literally true. It doesn't matter which is true, the fact is that his campaign deemed that it was dangerous to his chances for success to be known as a person who accepted science. Denying the truth is evidently the best strategy for victory. Ignorant and proud wins elections, and that's just pathetic.

This same topic came up in the 2008 Presidential election. My wife astutely pointed out that is was insane that Republicans were calling President Obama "elite" as an insult. Shouldn't we want elite people as our leaders? I want the person who leads my country to be brilliant or at least to be smart enough to know that they aren't an expert on everything. As President Bush showed us, the ability to admit a mistake and rethink your plans wouldn't hurt either. You would think that ignoring reality would be something to be proud of, but apparently it is. Hopefully my generation can fix it.