Kakistocracy – From the Greek
Oxford Dictionary Definition: Kakistocracy –
NOUN
-
1[mass noun] Government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state:
‘the danger is that this will reduce us to kakistocracy’‘every government that has existed since the ancient Greeks has been a prime example of kakistocracy’- 1.1[count noun] A state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens:
‘the modern regime is at once a plutocracy and a kakistocracy’‘the man in the street must share part of the blame for allowing such a kakistocracy to entrench itself’
- 1.1[count noun] A state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens:
Origin
Early 19th century: from Greek kakistos worst + -cracy.
The United States is entering a period of kakistocracy; that is, government run by those least suitable or competent. It is the perfect definition of the slow motion train wreck we are witnessing since the idiotic election of Cheeto Jesus to the presidency.
After promising to “drain the swamp” in Washington, all we’ve seen so far is alligators and snakes being brought in by the truckload. It started with well known bigot and conspiracy theorist, Steve Bannon as chief strategist, along with career liar and partisan, Reince Preibus as chief of staff. Now Jeff Sessions as AG? This is the same Jeff Sessions who couldn’t get confirmed as a judge because of his history of racism and support of the KKK. Lyin’ Ted Cruz has also been to Cheeto Tower to kiss the ring. Deep Fryer Sid Miller (the current National Embarrassment of Texas) is also being considered for high office, which is terrifying. Add to that the giant basket of deplorables made up of every weirdo, conspiracy theorist, bigot, anarchist, and screwball for cabinet or senior WH positions one can imagine. The ONLY positive thing that has happened this week is that brain surgeon and village idiot, Ben Carson, has stated the obvious, saying that he was “too inexperienced” to be Secretary of Education. What’s hilarious is that he acknowledges this weakness after he ran for the presidency.
The chaos at Cheeto Tower and in DC are clear signs that this new administration will perfectly fit the definition of Kakistocracy: a government made up of ill suited and incompetent citizens. And this is happening as we watch helplessly from afar knowing the likely result.
How did this happen? Have the Earth’s poles reversed? After 8 years of one of the most well spoken and thoughtful presidents since FDR, society hasn’t suddenly turned upside down. No, gravitational poles haven’t swapped ends. What’s actually happened is that, through years of disaffection of the working class combined with the Democrats utter tone deafness and nomination of the worst candidate for the presidency since Michael Dukakis, Cheeto Jesus got elected to the most powerful job in the world. It was a massive vote against status quo. And that’s not the worst of it.
The worst of it is that he’s currently running his transition just like he will run his presidency: incompetently. He is staffing the White House with exactly the opposite of what we need. What we need is level headed, mature, and experienced staff. What we’re getting is the potential for 4 years of global chaos.
God help us.
You need to submit this to major mags like GQ. You’re very good at this. Just sayin.
1I must admit to getting the biggest kick out of “Cheeto Jesus”.
2Sessions as AG would completely eradicate civil rights. Add to that his antipathy towards any one who would come to this country and that includes LEGAL immigration.
Pompeo as head of the CIA? What the heck? And that is exactly what I said when G.H.W Bush was dumped into that job! Repubs simply never learn!
3Shouldn’t that be spelled “cacastocracy?”
4Ben Carson was offered Health and Human Services, not Education. But that makes it even more hilarious.
5After Donnie picked Mike Pence as his running maul, he had to get creative to find worse options for his cabal.
6Actually, it was reported as education. http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a50659/trump-cabinet-carson-clarke/
7“Democrats utter tone deafness and nomination of the worst candidate for the presidency”
Man, I am already fed up with this narrative and Clinton wasn’t even my first choice (nor was Sanders). Liberals could have selected a hip, millennial Jesus and it still would have been up to the voters to do their damn jobs. You think the bigots & racists would have supported Jesus? We had a choice, either a boring establishment but decent human being or a sexual predator lying conman and the idiots picked the disgusting human being. The voters & non-voters knew the ramifications of voting Trump into office and they still made a terrible choice.
8Definitely a kakistocracy, with elements of kleptocracy (government by thieves) and pornocracy (government by whores), because you know they’re also looking to enrich themselves and shill for their corporate masters.
At this point I just have to hope that it gets SO bad that even the GOP can’t take it, but I acknowledge that’s a very high bar.
9Technically, Kakistocracy translates as “government of the shits,” though “government by the worst elements” is a close parallel.
10Andrew, wouldn’t that be “coprostocracy’?
11I had never heard the term kakistocracy. I regret having had occasion to learn this particular new word.
And, yes, I have to admit that I repeatedly had flash backs of Dukakis in the army tank throughout this election. I regret having had occasion to experience those flash backs, too.
I still hold out hope that incompetency and inability to get along with each other will prevent the kakistocracy from achieving much of anything. Unfortunately, I fear that Jeff Sessions doesn’t have to get along with anyone and has sufficient know how to dismantle the progress we have made vis-a-vis civil rights. And that is a crying shame.
12I thought the producers of Idiocracy got right a long time ago.
I usually hate to be disrespectful toward the office of the presidency, but when it’s Cheeto Grump in charge of the Idiocracy, I’m not feeling too bad about it.
13How about ineptocracy? Ignorantocracy? Or Not-Worth-a-Damn Ocracy?
14Grrrrrrrrr.
I was reading along and enjoying posts here, as usual, until I hit the slam on Hillary, who has been a hero of mine for over 25 years. Sure didn’t care for that.
15Gotta say this == Sessions psychologically is a throwback to Palmer, the guy who did all the raids back in the early part of the 20th century. He got stopped when it was revealed he actually did not have that power. It belonged to another executive department, and damn my age, I can’t recall which one! Oh, and I had a snit fit about that. Being publicly and painful defanged was not his thing.
16Sometimes the truth hurts. She fooled a lot of progressives into backing her TWICE for the presidency. The reality is that she is basically an Eisenhower Republican dressed up like a liberal. She is a machine politician, and tone deaf to the needs of the voters she was trying to attract. In 2016, it was too little, way too late.
17Yeah Chief, but I’d have voted for Mr Eisenhower over Mr Trump, and Ike has been dead for over 40 years now!
18I was reading yesterday that another mistake the Clinton campaign made was the reliance on a computer program to determine where resources needed to go. Unfortunately, the only data they had to enter into the program was poll results and we all now know the poll results were largely incorrect.
The campaign had people on the ground telling them that they were in trouble but the campaign’s computer program, nicknamed Ada, was telling them that they were doing just fine. They chose to believe Ada over the people on the ground in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. I am not a techie but even I can understand the principal of garbage in/garbage out. If the data being input is flawed then the results being output are likewise flawed. The cries of alarm from the people on the ground should have gotten someones attention. Instead the campaign said, “That can’t be so because our computer program tells us otherwise.” and merrily marched along to defeat. I guess they didn’t watch Hal 9000 in the movie 2001, A Space Odyssey.
19Here is a link to a story about Ada.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/11/09/clintons-data-driven-campaign-relied-heavily-on-an-algorithm-named-ada-what-didnt-she-see/
Also, please note that I was incorrect when I cited Pennsylvania in my above comment. Ada correctly identified Pennsylvania as a problem. But Ada missed other states including Michigan and Wisconsin.
20Hillary wasn’t my first choice either. However, that misses the point. This is precisely like Brexit. Heck, even the protests after the fact are almost exactly the same. The warnings were there about what would happen in each case, but we had enough voters in both circumstances that reverted to young children that just wanted to spite their parents. You telling me I’ll burn myself if I touch the red stove? Meanwhile, the MSM gets a four year ratings bonanza. Like children, these folks somehow expect that the real leaders will step in and fix this. I think what alarms me the most are the so-called progressives like Susan Sarandon that actually rooted for this eventuality. Like those of us from the Deep South could relate, it’s like rooting for the hurricane to hit you because evacuating means missing school or work. Yet, especially with the children, there is no consideration for all the damage that will need to be cleaned up. Real people will be hurt and even if we miraculously avoid international incident we will be worse off. How do you root for that?
21I have cordially disliked Susan Sarandon for years and wish she would stick to acting in and producing films. Ditto for Clint Eastwood!
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