Don't Hate The 'A' Students

PJ O'Rourke almost pissed me off this morning. In fact, he came this close to ruining my whole damn day. I followed the link from Instapundit to an article in The Weekly Standard, bemoaning the apparent surplus of intellectual snobs (what O'Rourke apparently feels are pretty stereotypical 'A' students) running the country in various positions of power in Washington D.C. and the assorted elite power structures clustered along the coast.

The Mayflower, per O'Rourke was full of 'C' students. Americans were trying to escape intellectually snobbery by fleeing from Europe for the untamed wild shores of Cape Cod. At this point in the article, I was about ready to start foaming at the mouth- but then, O'Rourke delivered the punchline: his daughter is an 'A' student. Thanks to the American educational system, everyone gets to overachieve now. I took a breath and remember that the dude was a satirist after all- and any guy who deconstructs Washington in a book he calls 'Parliament of Whores' is OK by me, as it's an awfully apt description of D.C. at the end of the day.

But buried beneath the razor sharp satire was an important point: there IS a surplus of intellectual snobbery crowding our elites power structures at the present time. But that's what we get for putting our capitol on the coast. Cities cluster along the coastline- and what do we find? The political, business and cultural centers of the country are actually nowhere near the center of the country- they're on the coast. The rest of us state can just go do whatever it is we do. I'm beginning to think that moving the capitol- or at least farming out some government departments so the rest of us can suck the teat of Federal Largesse would be a good idea.

I mean, think about it: the intelligentsia? Liberal or otherwise- it's mainly coastal. The media power structures? On the coast. The political power? Coastal again. We send people from the center of the country to the coast and it's like they collectively lose their minds. Proximity to the sea and expensive urban settings leech common sense from people faster than watching that 'Pretty Wild' show on E! does.

O'Rourke is right: there is a problem. But it's not 'A' students. There are plenty of intelligent, capable 'A' students in the Midwest too. The problem is that the power structures that run this country (the conflux of media-business-politics) are all on the coasts. Those people have no earthly idea what real life looks like. They haven't looked at the business end of a credit card bill or mortgage or student loan payment for years and sit high atop their Ivory Towers, making pronouncements from on high that the rest of us have to pay for.

So, it's not 'A' students. It's coastal, urban snobbery that's the problem. Any 'A' student worth their salt- and in a position to do anything about it would have shaken the dust from their feet and moved the damn capitol to Omaha.