Crucify Aragorn! Give us Jar Jar Binks!

As I was watching the local news interviewing students who participated in the “walkout” protest yesterday, I couldn’t help wondering: “Are all high school students this inarticulate?” I know – that makes me a horrible person. It’s obvious that we’re all supposed to be praising these students for “making their voices heard.” Never mind that they don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re speaking up, and that’s what counts. I guess the news coverage of these protesters is the media equivalent of the participation trophy. Excellence in knowledge or speech is unnecessary to be an opinion winner. Just show up, and you also make a valuable contribution.

The same popular sentiment applies to voting. We are told that we all have a duty to vote. All voters are praised. And yet we’ve probably all seen those cringe-worthy exit interviews that demonstrate that the people who just voted had no idea what they were voting about. Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t think everyone should vote. I don’t think we need more people voting. I think we need more people who know what they’re doing voting. Mike Rowe famously said, "Encouraging everyone to vote is like encouraging everyone to own a gun." I don't want gun democracy -- I'd prefer that gun owners know how to shoot straight. I feel the same way about opinion leaders and voters. Either the pen is mightier than the sword, or it isn't.

I frequently use the hashtag #democracyisoverrated. The Founders of our country understood this, which is why they gave us a republican form of government, not a democracy. We have made that government more democratic to our own hurt. Colorado's republican caucus process in the last presidential election cycle demonstrated the superiority of the republican form of government over democracy. In Colorado, each precinct was open to all republicans. The precincts elected delegates to the state convention. The delegates to the state convention then elected delegates to the national convention. This added layer of winnowing produced ultimate decision makers who had been vetted by the political process and were more informed and engaged than the person on the street whom they represented. The result was to select an informed and qualified candidate instead of the uninformed and disreputable demagogue. I know that what I am writing is contrary to the spirit of our age, but it's true: Most of us just aren't qualified or equipped to select our own leaders directly. We all would be better off if we selected qualified and trusted delegates who could then select leaders on our behalf.

This brings me to the rise of President Trump. I don’t mean to pick on President Trump, I think he’s actually been a better president than I had hoped and certainly better than he is portrayed in the popular media. But that doesn’t change my conviction that the rise of Trump is a symptom of the degradation of our culture by popular media. Popular culture has taught us that "articulate" equals "evil." Think about it. Watch a movie, and the character who appears to be the smartest and the smoothest talker in the first twenty minutes is the villain. If a character somehow seems flawed, then that character will likely have some nobility about her.  That's one reason that I read Tolkien and Lewis to my children. Those writers gave us the anti-Trump, virtuous heroes who are moral, intelligent, wise, and articulate. Consider Aragorn before the Black Gates: "I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!" Imagine President Trump delivering those lines. Can’t? Neither can I, but I do remember presidents delivering memorable lines. We won’t tolerate that now. Our popular media have conditioned us to be suspicious of those who appear to be smarter than we are. We’re so afraid that all of the articulate candidates might be Palpatine that we’re willing to put Jar Jar Binks in the Oval Office.

I’ve learned through years of life experience on a law school admissions committee, hiring committee, and as a voter: These days we all want to admit, hire, and vote for ourselves. I'm afraid this explains Trump's electoral success. I doubt whether it's always been this way. I think there probably was a time when voters wanted someone better than them to manage things they weren't equipped to handle. But now that all of our opinions are worthy of news coverage, now that we all get participation trophies, no matter the quality of our effort, we now understand that nobody's better than we are, so we might as well elect someone just as uninformed, just as inarticulate, just as flawed as we are.