Give me an elitist

America is in love with the notion that anyone could become president; a commonplace citizen taking command is the ultimate illustration of what our land of opportunities represents.

We value in our political candidates an aura of ordinariness and a sense of being down-to-earth. We want our presidents to be just like us. We enjoy imagining that our commander in chief is the type of dude with whom you’d like to sit down at a bar and have a beer (or, in the case of Hillary, a swig of whiskey), which is why the dub “elitist” has become so, well, nasty. It’s a label both candidates reject, snub and fear.

Elite is, technically speaking, defined as “the best or most skilled members of a group.” Let me ask you this: If you were going into a hospital tomorrow for some complex type of brain surgery, would you not want an elite surgeon to perform the task?

Likewise, we send elite troops on our most critical missions and ask elite pilots to fly our planes. And aren’t you glad that Peyton Manning is an elite athlete (well, most of the time anyway)? So why do we condemn an elitist in the political arena?
The next leader of the free world will face nuclear proliferation, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and covert wars elsewhere), global climate change, a precarious economy, Russian belligerence, the rise of China, a defunct United Nations, emerging epidemics, the deterioration of American schools, failures of energy, infrastructure and Internet security ... is your head spinning yet?

I don’t think that I could tackle these problems and, no offense, I don’t believe that you could either. Nor could anyone like us. I kind of feel like this job could maybe, just maybe, require someone better trained, more intelligent, more talented – more, well, elite than you or me.

And let’s face it: Neither candidate is anything like us. McCain, who doesn’t know how many homes he owns, and Obama, with his Ivy League education and world travels, don’t know much about a day in the life of the average Indiana resident – or American citizen, for that matter.

But voters have fooled themselves into demanding mediocrity, surmising that this trait enables our politicians to identify with us. We are buying into the notion that “elite” candidates think they are better than us and convincing ourselves that a desirable presidential quality is the absence of excellence.

America’s elite is the result of a combination of extraordinary talent and meticulous training; in no realm outside of politics will you find these qualities disparaged.
The next president’s thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions. Is it an unreasonable or pompous assumption that, in the 21st century, only an incredibly well-educated person should be given command of our nuclear arsenal? Give me an elitist, please.