So You Want a Dumbass for President?

There is an ongoing trend that I just can’t seem to wrap by brain around. It’s the use of the word “elitist” as an insult. Thinking that maybe it’s just me who doesn’t understand what “elite” means, I searched for it on dictionary.com and found the following:

e•lite [i-leet, ey-leet] - noun - the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons.

So an elitist would be someone who acts like that, whether it is warranted or not.

The question that naturally follows is, are we offended that someone is actually more intelligent than us or is it that we are more comfortable with someone of superior mental power blatantly patronizing us by dumbing things down to a level our little minds can understand?

I’m really at a loss on this one. Personally, I want someone embarrassingly superior to me running the country. They need to be able to make me sit back and say “wow” when they speak, I want to work harder to appreciate what it is that they are talking about, and most importantly, I want them to move me intellectually. I want someone who occasionally talks over my head to let me know that I need to work harder on my own level of comprehension and understanding. It keeps me on my toes and involved in the world around me.

Besides, haven’t we had enough presidents who are less comfortable talking on difficult matters and more comfortable knocking back beers and talking football? Isn’t it time we tried something a bit, I don’t know, better? Sure they may seem “elitist”, but haven’t the last eight years taught us that voting for someone of seemingly average intelligence, someone we can have a beer with, isn’t going to end well?

So here is my new definition of elitism: It is someone who knows more in the face of ignorance without being arrogant and condescending. And anyone who tries to lob it as an insult does nothing more than proclaim that they are a moron who will only vote for their own kind.