In defense of elitism

I'm going to try to keep this from being overtly political, I really am. You all know my positions -- one trip down the right sidebar of this blog and it's obvious who I'm voting for. But this isn't about that. I promise.

I get really frustrated when presidential candidates are criticized for being "too smart," to use one accusation that was hurled at Al Gore in 2000. Why in the world would we NOT want the smartest guy (or gal) we could find holding that office? (And I'll insert a slight bit of politics to point out that a quick look at the past eight years should easily answer that question.) This is something that's bothered me for a long time, and a Newsweek columnist has raised the subject in this week's issue. I didn't agree 100% with everything he said in his op-ed piece (full text in the link above), but this part made me want to shout with agreement from the mountaintops:

Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. [emphasis added by me] And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.

Why don't we want the smartest guy leading us? What is it about our country that seems to settle for, even revel in, our leader being just an Average Joe? Says Harris: "When it comes to politics, there is a mad love of mediocrity in this country. 'They think they're better than you!' is the refrain that (highly competent and cynical) strategists have set loose among the crowd, and the crowd has grown drunk on it once again." I say, let him think he's better than me--I really don't care. I want the smart guy.