Dale,
I’ve heard a couple of veteran actors make this same argument. Most notably Robert Duvall comes to mind when criticizing Nicholson’s involvement in Cuba and Penn’s Iraq excursion. I believe he said something to the effect of, "I sure trust Secretary of State Colin Powell more than Secretary of State Penn". And while I appreciate your reasoned argument I just can’t agree with the idea of supporting a leader based on the idea they know more than we do. When has it ever become acceptable policy to unquestioningly accept our leaders judgment under the supposition they are wiser and know better than us. I agree we need to cut them some slack due to our inability to always be in the know but this should be the driving impetus to become more knowledgeable about the subject and demand the tough answers rather than redouble our support. To adopt the "you’ll know better when you’re older" gambit is antithetical to the very values Thomas Jefferson espoused in the inchoate Republic. The quotes are too numerous to cite but here are a selection of my favorites:
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
I think even the appearance of impropriety on Bushco.’s part demands that we look to see if a seamy underbelly exists in this organization. And while I’ll agree with you that the parent analogy works well if it’s a parent we can trust, I’m pretty sure the drug abuser who sells his or her child into prostitution to feed a habit tells them the very same thing.
