Restore literacy requisite

Two things are booming in our country: the economy, and political dynasty. The first is a hero; the second a villain, a growing pain that’s disliked and detested by many.

The ubiquitous dynastic politics infests every level of elective office in our country, wrecking the foundation of our democracy that’s inspired by the egalitarian concept of a “government by, for and of the people.”

The new tune is a “government by, for and of some power-greedy people,” and it has set a trend that perverts the widely revered dictum from the great plebeian—Abraham Lincoln—who exhorted that a democratic government must draw its power and supreme authority from the people.

An elective candidate in this country with an intelligence quotient of 50 or less, or whose character is in the mold of Mickey Mouse’s or Kenkoy’s, can win handily if backed by the formidable forces of a political dynasty, a celebrity, and an endless roll of dumb voters who sell or barter their votes, or simply cast them with abysmal idiocy and cretinism.

The Constitution must be overhauled. The literacy requirement must be restored, and must go a step farther by making it mandatory for voters to be at least a high school graduate—the level of education at which maturity, thoroughness in critical thinking, discernment and wise judgment-making are deemed fairly developed.

And candidates for elective offices, at least for Congress, must be college graduates to upgrade the quality of our lawmakers and weed out the “wallflower” and dimwit types who do nothing but fidget and dawdle in their seats as they gourmandize their pork barrels. The Armani suits they don, or the 24K gold earrings dangling from their ears, mean nothing in lawmaking, if there is nothing inside their skulls.

The “antipolitical dynasty” provision in Article II, Section 26 of the Constitution is a huge blunder made by its framers. It has a big loophole that gives special license to opportunistic, power-starved politicians to operate a political dynasty like a big family business.

The framers did a good job at not doing a good job by relying on Congress to create the implementing act, when they could have done it right then and there—ironclad.

A political dynasty is a gold mine for most of our elected officials and they will break the necks of all who block their way.

Beseeching lawmakers to write or vote for an “enabling act” that defines the specifics of political dynasty is like taming the devil to swagger into St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, go to the confessional, hear Mass, take  communion and kiss the hands of the Pope—until  he melts down upon hearing the missal mantra: “Oremus vobescum saeculas saeculurum”

However, legislators who support the “implementing act” for the antipolitical dynasty decree are most welcome like Moses coming down from the mountain. With the Ten Commandments.

—MANUEL BIASON,

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