October 16th, 2008
GB and GOOD Want to Know Why You Vote
Glassbooth and GOOD Magazine are teaming up for a cool new project. Go here to learn more and possibly see your face in the next issue of GOOD Magazine.
Glassbooth and GOOD Magazine are teaming up for a cool new project. Go here to learn more and possibly see your face in the next issue of GOOD Magazine.
Smart does matter….
With all of the bantering and finger pointing on the campaign trail it is difficult to make sense of the actual issues that affect daily life in these United States. So before we get to the actual issues; the economy, the war, the health care system, the environment, the failing public education system, our aging infrastructure, what else, did I forget anything? Oh yeah, Energy! Before we get to that light reading, let’s just discuss for a moment those who would lead us through this labyrinth. Let us examine for a moment the men and women that have thrown their names into the hat to “Uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
I submit that one of the first qualifications of this new leader should be that they have in fact READ the Constitution and have the ability to speak about it at length and with authority. For this document, not Wal-Mart, or NASCAR, or Bloomingdales, or a house in the Hamptons defines our way of life. This document is what beckons the patriot and the civil servant, the immigrant and the soldier. It is this document that defines and determines who and what we are.
The argument that the country would be well served by a “regular person” or someone with whom we can all identify is stupid and dangerous. Since when have we wanted an intellectual middle weight to manage or lead? What must we assume the Constitution would look like had it been written by Betty and Bill, two regular folks with undergraduate degrees from totally acceptable colleges in totally average disciplines? Could average Betty or Bill have written Common Sense? Thomas Paine’s foundational writing that led the way to the forthcoming conversations on Independence among our founding fathers? Could average Betty or Bill have created the Treasury Department with Alexander Hamilton with their average understanding of managing their family budget? Could anyone or any group other than this elite group of intellectual powerhouses written our Declaration of Independence? Could men without a fluent and commanding grasp of history and political systems have embarked on this grand experiment which is The United States of America? These philosophers, these thinkers, these elitists, were the visionaries that enabled the colonies of British North America to engage in a meaningful dialogue that would eventually deliver the most advanced, the most just, and the most perfected Republic in the history of mankind. Think about the ramifications had this collection of intellectual all stars NOT been who or what they were. Simply put, we would not be a United States of America, but rather an extension of an ailing and failing British empire.
It is not enough to like those who will lead this troubled nation, we must be in awe of them. We must defer to their superior capacity to think through and reason with the critical questions and problems that plague us in this day. We must seek though leaders for government as we do in any other industry. We rely on those individuals who are not average to consider and develop those technologies, those methods, those symphonies, those formulations, those medicines, those novels, those engines, those theories which we, the majority of average thinkers cannot imagine.
The idea that the American people would be better served by mediocrity than by the very best and the very brightest is counter to everything that we are as a nation and to all that we should become, and absolutely all that we should leave for our children!
So, as important as the issues that we face is the consideration of the person or people who will be our Sherpa’s as we climb our way out. A keen and focused intellectual curiosity and a discipline demonstrated by dedication to knowledge is far more important than a belief that the candidate is someone with whom you want to share a beer. I want my pilot to be the best pilot, and I want my surgeon to be the best surgeon, and I want the leader of the free world to be the best thinker, the A student from an Ivy League school, a Constitutional Law professor, a Senator with judgment, and questions. I want to be led by someone who is smart enough for me to follow. I want Barack Obama.
To keep people like obama out of office
the reason as to why i vote is because i feel that the president that we have is not good for us because of him the economic system is all messed up because him . i think that when obama become our president that he will make everything better than it is now. so i hope all is well for obamas family and him also.