Rory Ryan, Senior Editor, North American Desk
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Have you ever received one of those forwarded emails from a friend or an associate that really caught your attention?
Me neither.
Until today.
An Ohio civil engineer and good friend fired off this gem of an email regarding a new word in the urban dictionary world. That word is "Ineptocracy."
Not to be confused with the 2006 Mike Judge movie "Idiocracy," "Ineptocracy" is more of a current condition than of a fleeting Luke Wilson comedic diversion from the silver screen.
By the definition included in my friend's recent email, "Ineptocracy" refers to "A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of real producers."
In other words – with a few exceptions – it defines much of what passes for representation in Washington, D.C., these days.
Take this recent quote in The Washington Post from President Barack H. Obama – speaking at Georgetown University in opposition to the Keystone Pipeline: “As a president, as a father, I’m here to say we need to act. I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing.”
The impressionable college students applauded, as impressionable college students tend to do when their speaker du jour is a media darling and liberal POTUS.
Instead of applauding, perhaps these young Hoyas may have considered what, if any, impact President Obama – or any other president for that matter – really has to "condemn future generations to a planet that's beyond fixing."
He's just not all that powerful.
The Washington Post concluded with this: "Freed from the need to compromise with Congress, Obama can enact regulations and issue directives that will change both government and the marketplace before he leaves office. But he is embarking on a piecemeal approach that targets individual sectors of the economy, with many of the details to be sketched out in the next two years."
That's an important observation, to put it mildly.
We have witnessed before selectively targeted individuals and individual sectors of the economy.
One of the better ways to address this Washingtonian heavy-handedness is through your respective members of Congress. Let them know your thoughts – sooner, rather than later.
If you aren't certain about your congressional representation, here are two easy-to-navigate websites:
• U.S. House of Representatives
Make no mistake, our U.S. senators and representatives measure each and every correspondence. Then, they multiply the prevailing sentiments by roughly 1 million. Really.
If we do not express our opinion in our government, well, we get the government we deserve.
Rory Ryan is Senior Editor, North American Desk at Paperitalo Publications. He can be reached by email at rory.ryan@taii.com.