[Hoot Gibson]

Americans have the government that they deserve. Sure, they have increasingly less trust in their government but it is our own collective fault. Even when good, principled men and women manage to get elected to public office, substantial money is required to win elections and the cost of a winning campaign soars, relative to the power of the office to root out corruption and make meaningful improvements to government.

Besides money, the constantly declining quality of American public schools is another factor in the declining quality of elections, elected representatives, and the people that they appoint to bureaucratic positions. How can we expect illiterate and semi-literate majorities to elect the best and brightest among us to public office? No amount of money spent on a campaign should make most of the people in Congress electable, yet here we are.