We are living through a time when words feel inadequate. Terms like “plutocrat” and “kleptocracy” don’t adequately express the oncoming nightmare.
From Prof. Sophia McClennen writing at Salon:
… we have one word that sums it all up: a kakistocracy, which literally means government by the worst element of a society. A kakistocracy is a government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. Trump plans to bring us the worst of both.
The word’s first known appearance was in 1829 in “The Misfortunes of Elphin,” written by the English satirical writer Thomas Love Peacock. In the United States the word is first recorded from American poet James Russell Lowell, who wrote in a letter in 1876: “Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people, or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?”
Lowell nails our current situation just right. We are indeed on the verge of a government for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools.
Yes, assuming the Electoral College doesn’t rise to the occasion tomorrow and fix the mess it’s gotten us into, the Executive Branch will soon be led by a crew of dishonest, unscrupulous men (and very few women), chosen by millions of voters and non-voters who preferred Trump to Clinton, or who didn’t understand or care that in a two-person race, being anti-Clinton was the same as being pro-Trump.
Prof. McClennen isn’t the first to revive the term. She cites, for example, an article by Amro Ali at Open Democracy that weighs the pros and cons of this unfamiliar language. She also briefly explains why “kakistocracy” sounds so much like “rule by shit”.
Perhaps “unpresidented” will be the Word of the Year for 2016. My hope and fear is that “kakistocracy” or the related term “kakistocrat” will be in the running next year.