There are a lot of reasons to be upset with what is happening to our country, but one of the things that bothers me the most is that political candidates feel they have to pander to our worst instincts.

I'm not even talking about the ones who play on our fears, but the candidates who say things they must know cannot possibly be true just because they think they can get votes.

[caption id="attachment_1361" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Rick Perry"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/s-RICK-PERRY-EVOLUTION-large300.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1361" title="s-RICK-PERRY-EVOLUTION-large300" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/s-RICK-PERRY-EVOLUTION-large300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="219" /></a>[/caption]

At one recent Republican presidential debate, the moderator asked how many of the candidates believed in evolution.

None of them raised their hands.

Now I'm not sure how many of them believe the Earth is just 6,000 years old, or that Jesus had a pet dinosaur. I have a real hard time believing that all these people who had enough on the ball to become senators or governors or CEOs know that little about science.

But it's pretty obvious that a lot of GOP voters -- whether because of ignorance, religious beliefs or both -- don't believe in science. And rather than educate them, the candidates prefer to play to their fears.

That's a problem for our country. We're in an era when we need to be smarter, yet our politicians seem to celebrate stupidity.

They seem intent on making one of H.L. Mencken's  most outrageous predictions come true. In 1922, Mencken said that he doubted the American republic would last another hundred years.

Mencken cited ignorance and greed as the reasons for the downfall, and we seem to be doing pretty well on both counts.

If we want to turn it around, we ought to at least demand one thing.

We ought to ask our presidential candidates to try to be smarter than we are.

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