Throughout our history, we have seen the office of the President of the United States occupied by some of the most brilliant and well-educated people on the planet. They come from a variety of backgrounds – some from wealthy political dynasties like the Kennedy family, others from relative poverty like Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.  Most had a college education. Some, like Zachary Taylor did not. Many also served with honor in the US military. 

The same can be said of the 535 members of Congress. Most of them are well-educated, and many hold law degrees. A good number of them are fabulously wealthy.

My thinking in times past is that it was amazing our country could be in such a mess when we have all these supposedly smart people running the show. More recently I have come to the conclusion that things are what they are because of, not in spite of, the geniuses inhabiting the White House and the halls of Congress. We’ve all seen people with degrees in everything from rocket science to brain surgery who couldn’t balance their checkbook or change a flat tire. What we’re lacking in Washington is plain old everyday horse sense.

If you, Mister or Missus Ordinary Citizen, do not have enough money to pay your bills, are you still going to have that extravagant dinner at Waffle House? If the rent is a week past due will you still buy that 6-pack of Bud Lite? No, you won’t. You’re smarter than that. And you won’t go borrow the money, either.

But Washington? Every US dollar printed is a dollar we owe someone else. We outran the value of our gold reserves many years ago. The elite professionals running the country are like a bunch of ten year-olds set loose in a candy store. And when they need more money, they’ll either raise our taxes yet again or print out another billion dollars in play money. Or both.

Why do we hire, via the vote, such idiotic and immature people to run our country? We’ve done it for generations.

There’s an old saying my father was fond of: “If you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself.”

We’ve been programmed to believe that only the elite, wealthy and scholarly are capable of running the nation. Those of us who dig the ditches, drill the oil wells, drive the trucks and hammer the nails have no place in Washington except as tourists. We, you and I, are too stupid to know what’s good for us.

But “Stupid” is beginning to push back. Ask any politician who received an earful at a town hall meeting or was confronted by vocal tea partiers. I am fed up with my taxes being raised by someone who has no concept of frugality. I’m sick of seeing laws passed that affect my life when the people voting the legislation into law are too lazy to actually read it. My famously volcanic temper is nearing eruption because of the idiots both in Washington and in the media, from the left and the right, who tell me exactly what they want me to hear so I’ll shut up and behave.

You know I who want in Washington? I want people who know how it feels when times are tough. I want people whose hearts are larger than their egos. I want people who have shown that they are both willing and capable of managing their own lives before they try to manage mine. I want the guy who stops to change a tire for an elderly lady on the side of the road. I want the woman who raised two kids and managed a household and made sure the bills were paid on time. I want people who go out and work up a sweat to make a living. I want fidelity (at least to the Constitution if not their spouses), decency, and most of all, common sense.

We, the citizens of Flyover Country, deserve better than what is currently being shoveled out of Washington. We deserve people who will watch our money as closely as we do. And we need people who do not forget that it is in fact our money. There is no such thing as “government money.”

The geniuses on both sides of the fence have had their chance, and they’ve blown it in spectacular fashion. It’s time to revert back to the time when the “common” person ran for office, served a few years, and then returned to private life. This notion is part of the bedrock of our republic. The Framers envisioned a nation of people governed by their peers, not by a bunch of ivory tower elitists.

Our government and the bulk of the media are rife with smooth talkers and shifty operators who create crisis after crisis to keep us believing our world will end if they’re not there to save us. We don’t need to be saved or “bailed out” by the buffoons in Washington. If anything, we need to save ourselves and our children’s future from a corrupt and inept Washington culture that long ago ceased to resemble what the Framers intended.

I for one have had enough of their kind of salvation. Hopefully, in 2010, we’ll have at least a few viable options instead of the usual suspects to vote for.

Alan Burkhart

Alan Burkhart is a cross-country trucker and occasional writer. He lives in southern Mississippi. You can visit Alan at his blog: http://alanburkhart.blogspot.com/