We don't have auto mechanics piloting the space shuttle for a reason...

[kentuck]

Nothing against auto mechanics, but there are some jobs that require skill and intelligence and judgement and knowledge. The same should be said about who we want to "pilot" our country. We really don't need Goober at the helm. We need an individual that is intelligent, with a knowledge of history, with good judgement and the skills of a diplomat. It is much like choosing a pilot for the space shuttle. Otherwise, we may find that we have a pilot who cannot land the craft in an emergency. He simply does not have the ability.

[A Simple Game]

1. I know some auto mechanics(not parts changers)

that I would prefer were piloting this country to what we now have at the helm.

[Gman]

2. There's a guy on local radio in San Antonio named

Steve Gurlein. He has a call in show on weekends. You tell him the make and model of the car, what it's doing or not doing, and he will tell you, in detail what the problem probably is, the history of that make and model doing that, or not doing that and to come to his shop (he buys the airtime as advertisement). The guy is a walking Chilton manuel. I think the guy's plenty bright enough to be an astronaut. He's a former cop and is conservative (not a winger) but I'm in awe of the guy's knowledge.

[booksenkatz]

3. Did someone say Goober?

For me, he's been Goober since the first moment I heard him speak back in the 1990s. Thus, my sig line. And yes, you are absolutely correct, although your analogy gives Goober Bush way too much credit. It would be better to compare his skill to a piece of lint piloting the shuttle. He is lint, because there is just no there there.

[growlypants]

4. I would rather have my mechanic at the helm of this country

than that coke-jawed lying freak who's in there now. At least my mechanic knows the meaning of hard work and is capable (auite capable, actually) of FIXING things. Mechanics are surgeons for cars.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Our country has been run head on into a quagmire, a disaster, a

mistake by "goober".

[etherealtruth]

6. I understand the gist of what you are trying to say ...

... I am a degreed woman that CAN NOT fix a solitary thing that is mechanically wrong with my car ... so who has more intelligence I don't know.

I think it would be much better to state that there are different types of intelligence, intelligence types that are better suited for specific fields or areas of endeavor ... than it is to disparage a group of people based solely upon their profession.

[kentuck]

7. You misunderstand...

Some of my friends are mechanics. And very good ones at that. However, they do not have the greatest diplomatic skills or a knowledge of history that would be needed to run our country. Just as you may not make a good mechanic, your mechanic would not make a good leader for our country. It is not just about "intelligence" and I am not trying to discriminate or say something politically incorrect. But, thanks....

[etherealtruth]

9. We had a haberdasher lead us at the end of WWII ...

... and represent us at Yalta.

I'm not worried about political correctness as I am GIVING THE IMPRESSION of elitism.

Chimpy is a complete jackass (I actually think sociopath), he'd be that in ANY field or endeavor.

I am not accusing you of elitism ... I just worry that impression may be wrongly conveyed by MANY of US.

I probably should have just kept my "worries" to myself ...

[kentuck]

10. These "worries" are another issue...

See the post about The Democratic Party Dilemma down the page... :)

Also, Truman was not just a "haberdasher"...

[etherealtruth]

11. #8's response IS the issue ...

"Also, Truman was not just a 'haberdasher'... ," that IS my point.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. I understand the point about Truman though

He was a farm kid who became a haberdasher and was persuaded into a political career.

[charlie]

8. For whatever reason

Republicans keep foisting idiots on us and goober nation keeps voting them in! First it was that narcoleptic boob Reagan, then they put Danny Quayle in the line of succession, they stayed home for Bush redux and Dole, and now we have Pinhead. Our country likes its presidents to be just this side of retarded. Go fucking figure.

[Trillo]

13. We also don't want elites in the government. Do we?

Nothing against education, but there are some jobs that have become elitist, arrogant, and better than everybody else. People who have raised money above all other concerns, and who use diplomacy alongside deceit with their elitist brothers and sisters elsewhere around the world to prey on the auto mechanics, janitors, clerks, and non-union part-time jobholders of the world. People, who, through their elitism, have allowed a caste system to develop in this country where higher education is deliberately withheld from the majority, pretend that they "know better" than everybody else while they live in their gated communities, driving their SUVs, and who have deliberately done NOTHING about the CEOs who have also risen above everyone else, or the outrageously unfair and unjust pay of their "colleagues" who are from the same elitist training camps of "higher education", which means to average joe and jane, "lower morals" and lack of empathic compassion for the less fortunate. People who have not only allowed a system of schooling for the masses that is designed to create worker drones who do nothing but what they're told, while creating a second track of education for a few who lead with arrogance either in government or business, a higher class of human who essentially preys upon the first group for the rest of those workers lives who have been deliberately created by the lower class educational system to be preyed upon. Workers who have been deliberately "stung" by educators until they have learned that its better to just comply. Workers who have been forced to be "generalists" in their educational experience, while the elites' training grounds are those of specialization in higher paying fields and also in their "intellectual" snobbery and class separation?

Are you saying that some "elites" truly deserve the "leadership" roles they've been granted in spite of the documented history of the above callousness towards the less fortunate of the same species?

[kentuck]

15. What does intelligence, diplomatic skills, and judegement have to do...?.

elitism?? Leadership doesn't have to be elitist. Intelligence does not have to be a negative. We can have all those qualities and still be sympathetic and compassionate to our fellow man. Why does one negate the other??

[Trillo]

16. That is the history of civilization as its practiced through the ages,

I'm sorry to report. Leadership has always been elitist, but its never sold to the public as elitist. Of course you're right, it doesn't have to be elitist, its just that it keeps BEING elitist.

[kentuck]

17. LBJ and FDR were elitists ?

But they still managed to improve the lives of the less fortunate. They did not necessarily look out for the interests of the "elitists". But what exactly is your definition of "elitist" ? Of course, we prefer, as a people, a person of high intellect over a shade tree mechanic with little knowledge of the world around us. Is that elitist? Perhaps? Is is the right thing to do?

[Trillo]

18. There have always been exceptions,

such as FDR, but only from time to time: what they have built has never lasted for the common person. Look around. See the misery of what has been created? See the opulent wealth of a few? See the unfair pay of professionals versus HS educated? See the Unfair pay of CEOs versus 'professionals and HS educated?'

"I" have nothing against the educated. Only against the inequity of what has been built for some 6000 years now for a few, and one of their tools of enslavement today is higher education for few, and punishment for the rest. Frankly, I'd rather live as a hunter gatherer than under a system of hypocrisy. As a hunter gatherer, I could have, when I was younger, taken care of my survival 'needs acquisition' in about two hours per day of work. Under that system, today at my age, I'd be dead already. But a temporary quality life is better than a longer life of enslavement to those who routinely lie and deceive.

From lies are built temporary structures which fall. A new deceit is built from those ashes, which falls again when the tyrants raise themselves above everyone else. Why not try a little honesty, instead? Why not bring back the middle class as an economic, social, and political majority to those who are alive RIGHT NOW without further "retraining" and parasitism?

I've had my say. You can have the last word.

Edit: added one word for clarity and misc typos.

[etherealtruth]

19. Higher education is not available to all ...

That is the problem.

Chimpy was able to go to a very prestigious school, NOT because of HIS intelligence (actually, despite his level of intelligence) because of who his family IS. That IS elitist.

There are plenty of highly intelligent mechanics, janitors, waitresses ... that were not able to pursue educations that best suited them due to economic pressures. Period.

I value intellectualism highly.

[kentuck]

20. I cannot argue with the basic premise....

From serfdom to the present, there have been elitists that have prospered on the labor of others. The union movement was a small glitch in the continuation of their system, but never made mcuh of an impact overall on the accumulation of wealth by the few. Once in a blue moon, someone would wipe a few crumbs off the table for those below them, but mostly to have a cleaner place in which he, himself, could feast.

[Toots]

14. Even if that person stayed at Motel 6

:shrug:

[Citizen Jane]

21. Hmm, here's a couple of mechanics I would trust with anything

http://www.cartalk.com/content/about/bios/tom-bio.html

http://www.cartalk.com/content/about/bios/ray-bio.html

My point being that while I agree we DO need someone with intelligence, skill, and knowledge at the helm of the "ship of state," it is often dangerous to generalize.

[kentuck]

22. Of course, an auto mechanic trained and educated as an astronaut...

would be an astronaut. Nothing generalized about it.