Aggressively, Cooperatively Ignorant

Found this video. Hat tip to Powerline

Jimmy Kimmel live goes out on Hollywood Blvd. and solicits peoples' opinions of Obama's 2012 inauguration ... several days before the inauguration.

Enjoy:

I never claimed to have a lot of respect for the intelligence of the average person.

That's exactly why I am a supporter of Libertarianism/Individualism. A lot of people will say that you have to trust that people are smart enough to make good choices on their own, that they don't need a big government nanny taking care of them in nearly every aspect of their lives. That's not the most important thing, though.

I believe the average person is woefully dim and ignorant. I don't believe people must necessarily be smart to run their own lives. I don't believe that they need to, on average, do a good job doing so. What is far more important is that it is utter fantasy to think that only the good, sensible people in the nation will end up making policy. How could that possibly happen?

No, we end up with people just as ignorant as the poor dupes in the video with huge influence on national, state and local policy. I feel sorry for anyone who has to make the case that our Vice President, Joe Biden, isn't of below-average intelligence. He's just not very bright. And he's a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

We have a sitting congressman who thinks Guam might tip over if we put too many people on it. That is not a joke!  He is not joking. He's that mentally deficient. I cannot accept that a deliberative body that contains that man has any legitimacy to make any decisions for me about anything! He's just an extreme example. Congress, and all branches of government, are full of people that just aren't that bright. And of the people who are bright, there's a significant portion that are greedy, self-serving or downright criminal.

This isn't unusual. There aren't mandatory IQ tests for Congressmen, cabinet members, Presidents, or even federal court justices. The same thing holds true down at the state level, and when you get down to the people who actually do the government work that affects you directly and intimately: BMV agents, cops, IRS agents, social workers, building inspectors, zoning enforcement agents, TSA agents, FDA agents, EPA agents -- these guys are squarely down in the "average working Joe" category, yet they wield enormous influence over our lives.

My goal as an individualist is to minimize the power and influence that random citizens can wield over me, just because they have government authority. That's why our Constitution establishes a limited government. To protect us from the people in government and to protect us from the whims of the (not very bright) majority.