When I create the People's Republic of Bobbi, every elected office-holder and every candidate will be required to take a quiz on current affairs every week, possibly Monday morning. It would cover what happened and perhaps public reactions to events.
There wouldn't be any passing or failing; there wouldn't be rewards for the best scores or punishment for low scores. Not from the government. But the scores would be published in every newspaper and on every news site. If some state or district or the nation as whole elected a nitwit, we'd all know. And making fun of them would be protected activity.
It wouldn't solve every problem, but we'd all have a better idea where to look for solutions.
If Bobbi is selecting the questions and grading the answers, I think I'm cool with this.
ReplyDeleteI just worry about what happens when Bobbi takes a vacation or decides to retire.
My theory is that most elected representatives of the people truly are representative of the voters who put them in office.
ReplyDeleteMy whole theory of life will have been shot when I discover that most people are not, as I've always assumed, well-meaning. In the upper primary grades of school, back when the earth was cooling in the 1940s, we had to report on current events in class. I like your extension of that basic idea.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how wack the answers, at least a plurality of their constituents would be all on board, alas.
ReplyDeleteIn some districts, you could possibly be elected on a platform of investigating the moon landing, or how Fortune 500 companies want to kill everyone to increase their profits.
Carteach, that is about the scariest thing I can think of.
ReplyDeleteI'd love you to publish the questions every Monday, or at least this Monday, for fun. I'd like to see how I'd do.
ReplyDeleteOverload in CO
And mandatory drug and alcohol tests before start of business every morning.
ReplyDeleteWhatever for, Rickn8or? Let the little darlings take the test stoned -- if they can. I'm interested in how they function, not how they got (or get) that way, and would neither coddle nor condemn them for their intoxicant vices.
ReplyDeleteRoberta, the phrase "Legislating Under the Influence" doesn't scare you? :)
ReplyDeleteRicn8or: nope. Consider the alcohol consumption of the men who wrote and amended the Constitution. I have worked with many high-functioning alcoholics and addicts. Given a chose between "drunk and/or high" and "ignorant and/or stupid" in elected officials, I'll take the buzzed ones any day -- heck, they're even sober some of the time, but nitwittery never slackens.
ReplyDeleteOkay, "...nitwittery never slackens" convinced me.
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