An Emerging Idiocracy?

To the Editor:

Last Thursday [October 2] we were subjected to a poor excuse for a debate between the two candidates for Vice President. If there is anyone left who still believes Governor Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President or President of our country, I wonder if they fully understand what the requirements of the job are.

Would you choose Governor Palin to be your oncologist? Would you ride in an airplane she was piloting? Would you drive across the bridge to nowhere if she was the architect who designed it or the engineer who built it? Would you even subscribe to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra if she was in the second flute chair. The answer to all of these questions is of course not. She’s not qualified and will do you great harm if she attempted these jobs (especially at the symphony). The qualifications of those who would hold high office are different from a physician’s, but are they any less demanding and stringent?

I mean no disrespect to Governor Palin. She is an accomplished, capable, and ambitious woman and has no doubt worked hard to achieve success. She would make an excellent press secretary and is a better campaigner than her running mate. But her achievements and capabilities are insufficient for holding high office and her conduct on the campaign trail has confirmed that. Her performance at the “debate” was worthy of a second rate beauty pageant, but unacceptable for someone who aspires to the highest offices of our country. “Mavericky” and “folksy” are not among the attributes that are demanded of those who would be President. I don’t mock her for being mavericky and folksy, but I denounce her and Senator McCain for mocking the nobility and sanctity of the office of the Presidency of the United States of America.

Her best argument for her candidacy is that plain ol’ American folks are gonna chase out the elites and run this swell country. This is the stuff of Hollywood fantasy; it would make a swell movie starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. The most galling aspect of her propaganda is the inference that the “elites” don’t think “Joe Six-Pack” (of the Tennessee Six-Packs?) is capable of running our country. The truth is, Governor Palin and Senator McCain believe that Joe Six-Pack is not smart enough to realize that she is unqualified for the job she seeks, and indeed they are counting on it.

Where is the outrage at that insult? Where is the outrage at their lack of patriotism? We must hold ourselves and our leaders to a much higher standard. If Sarah Palin is elected Vice President, the real legacy of President Bush is that he turned our grand nation, our extraordinary experiment in Republican government, into an Idiocracy. Please, say it ain’t so, Joe.

Martin Blanco

8 Pheasant Ridge Road, Newtown                              October 8, 2008