No, there are no IQ tests that show that politicians, judges and other government officials have low IQs. But what if government itself causes decisions that would otherwise be considered stupid if made by individuals?
The majority is not nearly as bright as the geniuses among us. Russia proved this. In the days before chess computers, a chess grandmaster would play against the most popular move of the readers. The grandmaster inevitably trounced the majority. The majority never won or drew. Now, of course, the majority has access to powerful chess playing programs and can draw the grandmaster. But who created the chess program but a few very brilliant chess playing programmers.
Unfortunately no democracy is constructed to get meaningful decisions from the population. Where the majority would be strong would be in voting for broad policy the outcome of which wouldn’t be influenced by greed or vested interests.
The democracy gets to vote for candidates that are fed beta blockers and tons of synthasized data and propaganda. The candidates are characterized by policy such as:
A.) “Do you want to pay more taxes or have the rich pay higher taxes with a resulting loss in the jobs created in America?”
or
B) “Do you want government to spend itself into bankruptcy and eventually only have government jobs?”
Of course both A and B are wrong answers.
I have a tiny, tiny preference for Romney because I believe it’s plausible that he knows how to balance a budget and be fiscally responsible. I think the debates showed that Obama and his team haven’t thought through the issues. Romney hasn’t though through every issue either, but he hasn’t been president for four years. By a 51-49 edge, I have decided that Romney would do the best job for the economy, if he only…