The best and the brightest

What a novel idea! Just what does it mean in the USA when well educated young people get positions of influence inside the Executive part of the D.C. government. If fact, let’s drag in the Congress, and the Judicial.

Let’s take this idea one level further. Education and brains overcome practical experience and operating experience, or are at least more valued. It might even be called the rubber meeting the road, finally. Which is more valuable to our country, smart educated young people, or probably just as smart older people with some road time inside the D.C. cauldron of internecine and bureaucratic warfare. Of course this begs the question, has federal bureaucracy become a force unto itself beyond the control of the best hard working smart “interagency” initiatives by the best and the brightest young Generation X types hired into the interior parts of the government. To continue to a worst case outcome, we may lose in Iraq just because of what happens inside of D.C. If we are to that point, then no initiative will solve the problem. It is time for revolt and revolution just to clean house.

Of course, in the case of Iraq, there is a viable case the President is doing a crummy job at being Commander in Chief, Iraq style. If this is correct, then no amount of best and brightest and good and bad personal assignments will unscrew the President’s performance. If this is wrong, and his Iraq style demands another savvy that may not have been taught in one of academia schools, then other things may be concluded.

So back to the best and the brightest. If one delves down into the bowels of government, more than a few Generation X types, as in their 20’s and 30’s, have been brought into government at all levels, and among the three divisions of government. That is fine until we start losing a simple war against a small country, or try legislate complicated things like health care and social security and medicare reform. Suddenly school education and good ideas fall by the wayside of practical experience included in the mix.

So when is the honeymoon over hiring educated well intentioned and hard working inexperienced people going to end? How many generations of McNamara wiz kids are our elected leaders in the executive and congress going to go with, or even put up with, even if it leads them to foreign defeats. For that matter, when are we going to elect a President and Congress that cleans house in the federal bureaucracy. Most will say, never …this is too hard a nut to crack. If this is the case, revolution may be closer than many can even imagine.