I agree. Ben Franklin believed that only those who had achieved some measure of success in the rel world had any bussiness being in politics anyway. Some read this as him being a plutocrat, stating that only the rich should be allowed to serve. Of course we tend to see little but rich lawyers in politics anyway.

Anyone want to see a "mom-and-pop" hardware store owner run for congress? That would be a nice change. We may need to tie him up and drag him to DC, but I think he could be a great congressman.

One element I liked about Plato's ruling class is that they were not permitted to own any property or marry or have children. All of their immediate needs were met, but they lived a communal, ascetic life, and since they were intellectually superior to the rabble, spent all of their time in deep contemplation and meditation, like Buddhist monks.

Ben Franklin believed members of congress and the president should not receive pay. I am sure he had read The Republic.

I did three years as a company commander at Parris Island. The young men who came to us may not be representative of America as a whole (let's face is, it takes a certain kind of man to join the military in general and the Marines in particular), but they often bonded with the toughest of our Drill Instructors as a surrogate father figure. I would like to think that means all hope is not lost, and even the most feminized of boys, deep down wants to be a man, and will do so if shown the way.

On the flip side, the Marines still have boot camp gender segregated, and the females are the strongest proponents of keeping it that way. They tend to feel that what young women need is not to be shown how to act more like a man, but how...

I know that because I am white I am supposed to have all of this guilt. But I dont. I know of only one ancestor that was in the US while there was slavery, and he faught for the Union in the Civil War to free the slaves. One other branch of my family fled Russia to get away from the Pograms, while another was starving to death after being run off of their land in Scottland.

If you want to show that you care about the "Oppressed" do something about the Christians being oppressed in Muslim countries.