Amid the Encircling Gloom

This is an excerpt from Thomas Fleming's editorial in the September 2009 number of Chronicles. Good old Dr Fleming. He never fails to depress. Because, of course, he is unquestionably correct.

The standards of erudition, among members of the political class, visibly declined by the middle of the 20th century, and I do not know who was the first president since World War II not to have studied Latin. There are many causes in the degeneration of American politicians, from the time of Webster and Calhoun to the days of the Clintons, Bushes, and Obamas, but the inability of our leaders to state an idea, frame a debate, or write their own speeches results in part from the purging of Latin from the curriculum of aspiring dictators.

The poor quality of the American political class - their mental and verbal incoherence, their self-deception, their lack of self discipline-makes it impossible for them to conceive, much less carry out, any reform or productive change. Any name of a current U.S. senator-nearly every one of them as unmanly as he is uneducated-would make the case for American degeneracy, so I will content myself with just one: Lindsey Graham. If this is the best that South Carolina Republicans can come up with, they may as well move to Illinois.

On the verge of despair, American conservatives are willing to support such impossible candidates as Chuck Baldwin or Sarah Palin on the grounds that their ignorance and inexperience have fortified them against the wiles of liberals and lobbyists, when, of course, the exact opposite is true. People who have never been exposed to any form of a disease are far more likely to fall victim to it.

It is a mistake to look to political leaders for any improvement. We have, as the saying goes, the leaders we deserve. An ignorant, undisciplined people is condemned to be misruled by ignorant and undisciplined leaders.

If you read the entire essay - and, of course, you should - you'll find he has a solution. Education. A proper education. A proper classical education. Nothing that's going to be in place by November, though. Sorry.