The Valedictocracy

I’m very pleased with the people Obama is bringing on board his administration. In David Brooks’ op-ed piece in the NY Times today, he refers to this new administration as the valedictocracy – rule by those who graduated first in their high school classes. Having been valedictorian of my high school graduating class in 1989, I’m glad to see my long-suffering people are finally getting their shot. (That’s a joke, folks.)

I’m hopeful that an Obama administration will (among other things) help buck the long-standing trend towards anti-intellectualism in our country. The world is a complicated place, and I want my leaders to be as intelligent as possible, be comfortable with nuance and speak in complete sentences. The last eight years have proven what a disaster voting for the guy you’d like to have a beer with can turn out to be. Fortunately, voters used a different filter this time around.

Call me elitist if you must, but I’d much rather have a beer with a guy or gal with advanced degrees from Harvard, Stanford or Yale than with Joe the Plumber. Time to hand over the controls to the eggheads — even if you are suspicious of this “elitist” approach, let’s face it, there’s very little chance they could do a worse job at the helm than the previous administration did.