The onslaught of stupid begins - Elections 2010

I just saw a commercial for gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox which convinced me that politics has taken a severe turn for the worse. It would appear that the republican party is now pandering towards the demographic that has little to no understanding of basic economic concepts nor any idea of how the political process works. It was supposed to be a smear ad against Pete Hoekstra - also republican candidate - ridiculing him for supporting the bailout and for voting to increase spending in the recession. Does this mean Mike Cox is pro-depression and anti-economic growth and recovery? (side note - ban smear campaigns. Don't tell me why that guy is bad - tell me why you are better) What's worse is that this plays into the hands of the ignorant voter rather than educating people as to why those actions were necessary. Mike Cox's campaign is betting that there are more ignorant people than intelligent people and is putting real economic recovery at risk in favor of political power. NOT COOL!!
This doesn't mean that it's the responsibility of every voter to fully understand political and economic processes; that's why we have politicians, they are people whose job is to know stuff so the regular Joe doesn't have to. I don't need to understand the nuances of medicine or chemistry to trust my doctor or pharmacist; that's their jobs. Somehow as a society we've gotten to a point where we seem to want politicians to be "regular people." I think it may go back farther than the McCain-Palin campaign against elitism but regardless, elitism is not a bad thing to demand of a person making decisions for a large population. Our political representatives should be "better" than a regular Joe, that's what makes them worthy of being a leader. They shouldn't have to explain and justify every little decision to people who don't understand the processes. It should be good enough to say "because that's the best option."
However, this whole idea is heavily based on trust and something has happened to completely erode people's trust in leaders. While some of the loss of trust is well-deserved from the actions of assholes; there are bad people everywhere and there are a lot of good people in politics as well. Much of the degradation of trust seems as though it could be attributed to partisan bickering (always trying to make the other guy the "bad guy"), constant "scapegoating," and a barrage of media hyperbole as news entities seek to make memorable stories. The result is a country that is rapidly polarizing; everyone must be a conservative or liberal and there's no middle ground. This lack of middle ground and refusal to work together towards a common goal (for fear of appearing "weak" which puts re-electability at risk) ultimately will lead this country in a position where there's a complete an inability to get anything done at the expense of real growth and development - everyone loses! Meanwhile we have legions of armchair politicians who have a vague understanding of the political process - not enough to help in any meaningful way but enough to do some serious damage to the stability of a system. Politicians on both sides are now catering to this crap; nothing good can come from this race to the bottom.