Flummoxed. Now there’s a word I don’t get to use very often. Stunned, bewildered and dumbfounded are a few more that I don’t often use. But I’m going to use them now.
I was in a “conversation” on Facebook the other day. One of the participants said, “We need a republic/democracy that represents the will of the majority of the people.”
I replied “I disagree. We need a government that looks out for the best interests of everyone, not merely bending to the will of the majority.”
The reply was, “You’re proposing that the minority knows what is best? That there are smarter people that know better than the majority and therefore can make decisions for them?”
That last statement was the part that flummoxed, stunned, bewildered and dumbfounded me.
Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought that someone could think that the smart people are all represented by the majority. What a ridiculous thing to believe.
The only thing you can determine from the outcome of an election is that the majority was simply better at getting votes. You can’t infer possession of intelligence or even the moral high ground. The only thing you can know for certain is that, for whatever reason, more people voted one way than another.
Saying that voting with the majority indicates intelligence is like saying that having a driver’s license means you’re a good driver. Neither of which is true. Though, at least you’re required to pass a couple of tests before you’re allowed to drive. But, as we all know, there are plenty of people with licenses who are terrible drivers.
Many, many people simply vote for the incumbent or vote however they’re told to by relatives, celebrities, employers or union officials. Still others vote for someone because of the way the candidate smiles or the color of their skin or because they aren’t the other candidate. For most people, not a lot of thought is put into who they vote for.
If intelligence isn’t required to cast a vote, then how is it possible to draw the conclusion that all of the smart people side with the majority? Obviously, it isn’t.
U.S. citizens who reside in a U.S. territory are not allowed to vote for President. They are not represented by the electoral college. So, a U.S. citizen who has multi PhD’s (by any reasonable standard this indicates a very smart person) and lives in Puerto Rico*, can’t vote for president. And, if you can’t vote then there is no way you can be measured as being in the majority, regardless of how smart you are.
As I progressed in my career, I came to realize that the higher I rose in an organization, the less my job was about having all the bright ideas and the more it was about recognizing a good idea when I saw one.
That should be how every elected official thinks. The fact is that there are many smart people in both the majority and the minority. The trick is finding them. Stacking administrations with people from only one party is foolish and nearsighted. Yet that’s exactly what many politicians do.
The people supporting those that make decisions for all of us should be people who bring the best solutions to the table regardless of their political affiliation. And those solutions need to be what’s best for all of us, not just best for people who voted a certain way.
The majority doesn’t contain all of the smart people in this country. Believing otherwise is…well…stupid.
*U.S. Territories include Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa**, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands.
**American Samoans are actually “Nationals” instead of “Citizens” which makes restrictions on them even crazier.
