elite? you betcha!

Elite is the new black.

I don't really buy the hogwash that America wants to sit down and have a beer with their president (or vice president.) I don't think you can pry most of America away from the TV or computer screen long enough for that. Why the media allows this myth to be perpetuated, I'm not sure. But as we have all been unpleasantly shaken awake from the bad dream of the last eight years to the hard reality of financial and political mismanagement, the media is finally being forced to report on substantive issues, and not whether it would be fun to hang out with W and Co. or their pale imitators.

What is amusing, to me, about the Republicans' attempt to make elite a bad word is that its most basic definition is the best. Don't they think they are the best choice? Or what about its alternate definition, power elite? I know they want the power. We can probably skip the fourth definition, as few folks still use typewriters these days (except maybe McCain)? Most importantly, perhaps, the word's origins come from the word elect.

So, next month, let's please elect an elite to the power elite.

I thank you.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

e·lite /ɪˈlit, eɪˈlit/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[i-leet, ey-leet] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	(often used with a plural verb) the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons.

2.	(used with a plural verb) persons of the highest class: Only the elite were there.

3.	a group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group: the power elite of a major political party.

4.	a type, approximately 10-point in printing-type size, widely used in typewriters and having 12 characters to the inch. Compare pica1.

–adjective

5.	representing the most choice or select; best: an elite group of authors.

Also, é·lite.

[Origin: 1350–1400; ME elit a person elected to office <>e(s)lit ptp. of e(s)lire to choose; see elect]

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