Sheila Jackson Lee is not retarded or missing a chromosome. She is just not terribly bright. The reason she is in Congress, however, is the voters of her district are mostly to the left of her on the bell curve. According to Wikipedia, her district is 40% black, 35% Hispanic and 20% white. According to this site, her district is one of the youngest. It ranks 18th in number of children under 5 and 30th in residents under 30. It seems odd that it would have so many babies, yet a declining population of adults. Hmmmm….
The answer is it is home to the Third Ward, a section of downtown Houston. The Third Ward is known as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods on the planet. According to this, you have a 1-in-13 chance of being a crime victim there. Getting a decent murder rate for the area is tough, but news reports claim a murder rate three times the rest of the city, which is 12 so that means over 30. It is hard to know for sure, but we know enough to say it is a hyper-violent place.
The general picture to keep in mind is of a poor urban ghetto filled with violent drug dealers and their underclass partners. You’re not getting a lot of high IQ strivers coming from that district. The median IQ of her district is below 85. It is the old line about the one eyed man being king of the blind. Jackson Lee is a moron by normal standards, but in her district, she’s the smart fraction. In Detroit, a smart fraction with IQ’s in the 90’s resulted in the Haiti-fication of what was once America’s richest city.
It is easy to pick on Lee and the people of her district, but it is the central defect of democracy. No matter how much you spend on education, half of the population is going to be below average. More than half, much more than half in fact, is average or below average in intelligence. The magical thinking of democracy is that one dumb person cannot be trusted to make decisions. A million dumb people will collectively act like a single smart person. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The people of Lee’s district should not be voting on anything of significance. They are simply too dumb to be trusted. Some could be trusted with the vote. Certainly some own property, run a business and conduct themselves as responsible citizens. Most struggle to keep up with the basics of living. A fair number are unable to understand much more than a child. Why would anyone think it wise to let such people vote? Yet, this is the logic of democracy. It is an appeal to the lowest common denominator.
I agree wholeheartedly with your article. Due to realignment of Congressional Districts she now has a contingent of educated middle class conservatives. Unfortunately votes to put this person down. I have written two pieces about the stupid comments she makes whenever she gets in front of an audience. She is an embarrassment to the State of Texas. Her district reaches from the Heights in near downtown Houston almost to Montgomery County 22 miles to the North in The Woodlands, TX. She needs to go. Thanks for your article. (Her district ends 1/4 of a mile from my home in Spring, TX.)
People should be required to pass a test in order to vote. But the bigger question – until smart drugs become more mainstream and affordable – is what to do with all the below average folks in an Average is Over world. Especially since we keep raising the bar with respect to what one needs to do to earn a middle class living. Idiocracy is coming.