Have you ever gone crabbing? When I was a young girl, and we’d visit my grandparents in Florida, we would crab off the end of their dock. The crab traps were made of metal. They were large and heavy. Once we had loaded them with bait – which consisted of yummy things like raw chicken necks – my dad would heave the traps off the end of the dock.

The most surprising thing about crabbing though isn’t catching the crabs, but rather, watching what the live crabs will do once you’ve placed them into an open bucket. Because they are alive they move around and start to climb. A novice crabber might be tempted to put a lid on the bucket so that none escape. There is no need to do that though because as soon as one crab is about to free itself, another crab will reach up with its claw and pull the other one back down. This phenomenon is referred to as the “crab theory.” Simply put, people often wish other people success, but they don’t want them to become more successful than they are.

This mentality seems to be permeating society. Why?

We’ve written before that we believe, with few exceptions, the brightest and best among us are often not the people we elect to office. And then we complain when things don’t change, or when things don’t improve. Why would they? Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Are we intimidated by the best, the brightest and the most capable? If the answer is no, then why aren’t we electing them?

If we look around us, we see many examples where new hires, promotions, school acceptances, etc... are based on quotas rather than on merit. Again, why?

If it is true equality we seek, then why aren’t job applications, college applications, and other similar types of things done so anonymously without any identifying characteristics of the applicant? Why are there so many boxes to be checked? Why aren’t applicants assessed strictly on capability, experience and past performance?

On Twitter the other day there was a thread bemoaning the fact that the overwhelming majority of US correspondents in the Middle East do not speak or understand Arabic or Persian. The replies to the tweet were interesting, especially the ones from people who claimed to have worked within the intelligence community of the United States. One after another indicated that the “biggest open secret” was the lack of language proficiency among their ranks. How on earth can you adequately monitor threats if you can’t understand the language spoken? How on earth is that not a priority within the intelligence community? And if language proficiency isn’t a desirable skillset, then, pray tell, what is? We can’t be the only ones who’ve been extremely disappointed with our intelligence agencies the past few years.

More and more it feels like the junior varsity team is in charge. Has it always been that way? Or did we fall asleep at the wheel because life was too easy and too good for too many decades? Whatever the reason, we’re past ready wanting to right the ship. It’s time for better. It’s time for best. It’s time to bench most of Washington. No, scratch that. It’s time for most of Washington to be kicked off the team.

Are we not the team owners? As such, shouldn’t we demand a better coach and better players? It’s up to us to recruit real talent, work ethic and integrity. And more importantly, it’s up to us to fire them when they fail to perform. I think most in Washington want us to forget who’s really in charge. We haven’t forgotten. We hope you haven’t either. Elections are coming up, and more than ever, elections have consequences.