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The website, Dictionary.com defines kakistocracy as “a government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power.” Other sources concur, describing it as leadership by the least competent and most unscrupulous. It’s a head-scratcher, really—how do these individuals manage to fail their way upward and claim the most powerful seats in government?

If you’ve been keeping up with current events, it’s hard not to conclude that the United States is stumbling into a kakistocracy. Case in point is a president, an “elderly man with a poor memory,”  whose cognitive issues and frail health allowed him to dodge legal scrutiny under the guise of public sympathy. Joe Biden was never known as the “sharpest knife in the drawer,” but his current level of performance became so glaringly destitute that he required strong “encouragement” to abandon his re-election ambitions. And yet, the problem of obvious ineffectiveness isn’t just a “Joe thing.” Glancing at the Cabinet and other key positions of this administration, does anyone inspire confidence or stand out as the poster child of competence? Anyone? Bueller?

History is littered with examples of kakistocracies. The Roman empire had its fair share of inept rulers such as Nero and Commodus (among others) but was able to endure and overcome them until other compounding factors led to the empire’s eventual fall. Other regimes were not so lucky. Many are familiar with the biblical story found in the book of Daniel, where King Belshazzar’s foolish rule ended dramatically when the divine “handwriting on the wall” pronounced that the king had been weighed on the scales and found deficient, leading to his abrupt downfall.

In the more recent past, the late-Qing Dynasty of China collapsed under corruption and incompetence, plunging the nation into chaos for decades (compounded by a world war) before the Chinese Communist Party took control. The Weimar Republic of the 1930s Germany was another prime example. Its leadership was so ineffective and directionless that it paved the way for the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler’s brutal dictatorship. The lessons learned: Kakistocracies have consequences.

In the U.S., the Democrat party has a talent for slouching toward mediocrity when picking presidential running mates. Barack Obama’s VP pick was Joe Biden—whose own presidential ambitions had previously fizzled out amid allegations of plagiarism. Was it merely a move to make Obama assassination-proof? Perhaps.

Yet this newly established tradition of choosing mediocrity or a “midwit” continues. It seems this slouching trend became contagious to the American public as in 2020, America elected that same Joe Biden as president. His VP, Kamala Harris, was so unpopular that she dropped out of the 2020 primaries before a single vote was cast. Despite Biden’s noticeable cognitive decline, this administration’s “strategy” (in cooperation with a complicit media), was to cover up the president’s deteriorating mental acuity and keep Harris out of the spotlight rather than a more public promotion of her as a successor.

Translation: Biden, in a mentally diminished state, is still better than Harris. To top off this comedy of errors—this kakistocratic path (a new term here), has progressed to where she now has stumbled upward to lead the Democrat presidential ticket (still without one single primary vote). Also, in keeping the “midwit” tradition alive, she found someone inepter than her in Tim Walz, who, using the most generous of descriptions, could be portrayed as an exaggerated artist extraordinaire (although legislating the placement of tampon dispensers in boys’ bathrooms is an actual “accomplishment” of his). 

How did America come to this?

Kakistocracies thrive when accountability erodes. With the incessant growth of bureaucracies, individual responsibility becomes proportionally diluted. The last president and Congress to pass a balanced budget was Bill Clinton, around 2000. Back then, the national debt hovered around $5 trillion—a sum accumulated over 220 years of our nation’s existence. Fast forward 24 years, and that number has ballooned 700% to $35 trillion. Continuous fiscal mismanagement, anyone?

Another ingredient in the kakistocracy recipe is the sway of special interests. Campaigns need funding, and big donors expect influence. This practice breeds codependent leaders who are more beholden to money than solutions and more indebted to donors than voters, leading to political appointments based on allegiance rather than skill. The Roman Praetorian Guard began as an elite protective force, but eventually devolved into a politically-motivated group that prioritized loyalty and political affinity over competence and skill. Much like contemporary DEI initiatives, where job performance metrics are often overshadowed by political or social considerations, the Guard’s erosional shift led to a death march of the unit’s integrity. Similarly, in modern government, critical positions are often filled based on political allegiance rather than merit, undermining efficiency and expertise.

Then, there’s public apathy. Life is stressful, and most people don’t have the bandwidth for civic engagement. They just hope that the government is doing a reasonably competent job without oversight so that they can simply live peaceable lives. However, foxes do not make for sound guards of hen houses and indebted politicians do not make for good stewards of our treasury. We, the people, cannot just wish our leaders to be competent. One gets what one inspects, not expects.

Lastly, moral decay rounds out the list. When the desire for personal gain takes precedence over public good, ethics falter. John Adams warned of this predicament:

Because we have no Government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Without ethics, the rich get richer, culture corrodes, and political leaders become puppets of their financial backers. The strategy of, “never let a crisis go to waste” has progressed to let’s use our puppets to create crises and therefore direct the nation in how we want it to go. Voilà— welcome to the machinations of the Deep State where incompetence makes a perfect cover story to secretly seeking malevolent control. It takes wisdom and a willingness to look and see the “strings of the marionette” on behalf of we, the people, to understand the breadth and magnitude of our current dilemma.

Can we escape this spiral into kakistocracy? The 2024 election could be a turning point. Enter President Trump, a fighter who is an experienced and proven executive—a proven president. It’s not about personality as the media tries to insist; it’s about performance. Donald Trump is the weapon of choice to kill this kakistocracy.  Mission focus is crucial now, and with God’s help, perhaps we can claw our way back to sanity. Mark your calendars: Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Your vote matters.

Tom McAllister, Ed.D is a business consultant, adjunct professor, and the author of the book, Short Strolls in Faith.

Image generated by AI.