OPINION: Give Me Liberty... And Perhaps Higher Political Standards

By Kyle LaFleur

Amid the recent coverage of the revolution in Libya, the budget battle in Wisconsin and the circus that is Charlie Sheen’s life, a disturbing trend in American politics once again reared its ugly head for a brief second before diving below the surface of our national discourse. I am talking of course, about another mainstream politician being horribly incorrect about a historical fact concerning their beloved country.

This time former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s (R) credibility was called into question over comments he made February 28th on New York City’s WOR about President Obama’s childhood experiences outside the U.S.

“I would love to know more, but what I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, is very different than the average American,” Huckabee told talk radio host Steve Malzberg. Later in the interview, Huckabee claimed that Obama’s world view comes from, “growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather.”

Though Huckabee was right about Obama spendng part of his childhood living abroad, the country that housed young Obama was Indonesia, a different country on a separate continent. Huckabee was also correct that Obama has visited Kenya, but the President did so at the age of 20, a stage in life legally and publicly deemed above the realm of childhood. 

The former Republican presidential candidate, however, has company. It seems more and more these days elected officials on both sides of the aisle know more about what their core constituency wants to hear and less about the solid truth.  

Fellow conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) claimed during a speech in Iowa shortly following her Tea Party response to the State of the Union address that the founding fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery in America. History and common knowledge though shows that the founders, like many others at the time, owned slaves and that this immoral practice was not ended until nearly a century later.

Liberals, too, have spread their fair share of embarrassingly obvious falsehoods. Take, for example, New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D), who claimed on CNN that our three branches of federal government consisted of the House, the Senate and the President, though the rest of the world knows them as the Judicial, the Legislative and the Executive. 

Even President Obama is not immune to this plague of misinformation, most notably for his claim during a 2008 speech in Oregon that he had visited 57 states and still had one more to go. 

Supporters, and politicians themselves have called these statements gaffes or simple slips of the tongues and while this may be true, I feel it exposes a dangerous trend, namely that our civic leaders are selected more on what they think we want to hear and less on what they actually know. Just as I would no longer have faith in a doctor who tells me I have cancer of the dorsal fin, it’s high time the nation held public officials to the same standard.

This is where a candidacy test would come into play. 

For nearly every administrative or skilled profession there is some sort of aptitude test that divides those ready to serve from those who need a little more study to be prepared. You expect your mechanic to understand the ins and outs of your vehicle, so why not demand the same from the people who write the regulations on the cleanliness of your water or the division of your tax dollars?

I propose candidates simply pass a test, with questions ranging in topics from US history and the Constitution, to basic economics and simple environmental science, in order to be eligible to appear on the ballot.

The system would run on a pass/fail model with those passing being allowed to run and those failing leaving with a knowledge of the area of public service they need to bone up on. The questions should be only mildly difficult, written by experts in each field, and every candidate, incumbent or first timer, should be required to take the test each cycle.

This would not be a way of ensuring only the elite get to serve, but would simply put a qualified person in a position of power. Every American is required to take a test to legally operate a motor vehicle, which is why it would make sense to want the same from those taking the wheel of democracy.