THE TROUBLE WITH "BRIGHT" PEOPLE

The trouble with "bright" people is that they often assume everyone else is stupid.

That's not the first time I have written that - and unfortunately it won't be the last. We just continue to see a repetition of this home grown aphorism in practice.

The positive is that it doesn't include all bright people. There are some pretty smart people out there who don't abuse their intelligence.

The conclusion in the title is so complex that I have chosen to spread out the examples over two blogs; this being the first.

Let's look at Congress as the first offending party.

Congress is an aggregate of people smart enough to get themselves elected to public office - but, who then decide to do stupid things.

Why do they do it? Because they conclude that the rest of the people out there are too stupid to catch them.

So, they do it - because they can. By our blind insistance on re-electing our officials- despite their greedy actions- we are allowing this to happen.

This is despite the fact we have never had so many watchdogs out there looking at the actions of almost everyone. Ask former representative Weiner.

Case in point: Congress in 2011 found a way around "one more promise to the public". This time it was an end run around the Republican house majority declaring a ban last December on members pet spending projects.

How did they do it, you ask?

Well, they took a $1 billion defense fund and the House members dipped into it to the tune of $600 million in special projects.

How did we find out?

The Taxpayers For Common Sense watchdog group outed the House members.

You remember the term "Billion " don't you?

That's the one being bandied in plural form by Congress who's many members have decided "Social Security is costing this country too much and it's time to act."

At the same time Congress already has plans in sight to rob Social Security via other end runs.

Personally, as a recipient, I find no problem with examining ways to repair Social Security, but only if there are credible accompanying guarantees that Congress will stop raiding it.

At one time, it was perhaps the only program that was self sustaining - thus the first program Congress went after.

Remember, this is also the same Congress,led by House Republican
"leadership" who, in their "search for savings", decided in a recent 217 to 203 vote to cut the Womans, Infants, and Children program which offers food and education to low income mothers and children.

The cut is by $868 million. "Still, it's not even a a billion," I can hear them say as they defend their actions. That's assuming they believe they have to.

At the same time, the Rwepublican majority in the House rejected bi-partisan attempts to reduce Farm subsidies to large corporations; among others.

I gotta ask you again, "Are you sure this isn't graft?"

Somebody is obviously benefitting by these decisions - and it doesn't take "Hawkshaw Hawkins, Private Detective" to determine who.

This is the first of two examples of what I think of bright people's "misinterpretation" of the intelligence of the rest of the populace. Our actions at the polls to call them to task will prove them wrong.

Second, we have the Plaintiff bar - or maybe just a few plaintiff attorneys - whom the Supreme Court in a 5 /4 decision, recently gave their "comeuppance". They too misjudged others.

The issue - not a simple one - had to do with the certification of what may or may not constitute a valid Class Action lawsuit.

Like Roz, in our commercials down here, "I am not a lawyer - so please think of what follows as a speculative overview."

However, I believe it says much to defend the conclusion listed in the title of this blog.

It's not that we haven't devised methods to keep the fox out of the henhouse. It's just that too often we don't take the time to determine whether or not those methods are working.

The current Supreme Court did - and they decided they weren't working.