What will it take for our leaders to be elected based on good reasons, not fear and stupidity?

I keep seeing questions about this, and having the same question posed to me quite often: what do you think it will take to change the direction of this country? Most think it starts with the President, and that in 2009 one way or another things will change. I whole heartedly disagree with this, and believe especially that if McCain is elected, the difference between 2009-2013 will be minimal compared to 2001-2009. Even if Obama or Clinton win, I still don't see much really changing.

I believe that the larger problem is with the voters, not the people who are elected. Those who cry for change must be willing to elect the person / people who will bring about change. This doesn't, unfortunately, start at the top. It starts at the bottom on the local level and works upward to the highest elected offices in the US. In any elected office, you are only as powerful as the people around / below you will allow you to be.

I personally don't believe this will ever really happen. The electorate is just too ignorant. I'm guilty of this myself, just as many people are. I don't research every person running for local office like I should. I do my research on the folks running for president, governor, and sometimes mayor, and always the judges.

Nationally, for the most part, I feel that people voting aren't educating themselves enough to realize that the issues aren't what Obama's pastor believes; nobody is trying to elect Reverend Wright as President. The people voting aren't educating themselves to realize that Clinton may have been wrong about the sniper fire in Bosnia, but that's hardly an issue. The people voting aren't educating themselves enough to realize that the Republican fear tactics about national security are just that: fear tactics.

The electorate needs to inform themselves on all issues, and on true issues, not what somebody's pastor says or husband says. I do believe that you are judged by the company you keep, but in all honesty, doesn't every one of us have that one person in our lives that we love dearly, but just don't agree with?

Maybe if people really took the time to research the candidates instead of listening to the media, reading e-mails, and watching the talking heads on TV pull out sound bytes... maybe then things would begin to change.

I believe that is what got us to where we are today. Ask about 73% of Americans (based on Bush's 27% approval rating) and I think they would all answer Ronald Regan's question "are you better off now than you were four years ago?" with a resounding "NO!"

A quote I really like that is often attributed to Albert Einstein sums up this election, and perhaps this country, very well: "the thinking that got us into this mess is not sufficient to get us out."

(also quoted as: "The thinking it took to get us into this mess is not the same thinking that is going to get us out of it." And more appropriately, though most certainly not Einstein in origin: "Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?")