you seem to assume that there is a perfect systemI would disagree rather I think the current system is very poor and is in need of vast improvement in some wayThe likelihood that a politician becomesis corrupt should be something that makes heshe more or less qualifiedYou could certainly be well educated on an issue but still corrupt and therefore influenced in some way to make a decision against what you know is the right thing to do . Intelligent A prodigy in one field can be incredibly stupid in another . When I say intelligence I do not mean having knowledge of a singular field . I mean an individual that has the capability to understand new material quickly , critically think about it , and make informed decisions . Ethical Ethical mean being moral and making moral decisions . But who decided what is morally correct ? Take abortionAgain you are taking a narrow view of what it means to be ethical . It is not having opinion X or Y on some controversial topic . It is being being the type of person that makes the hard decision because it is the right one . I agree it is somewhat subjective , but it has very little to do with controversial issues such as abortion . The US is a government for the people and by the people . When we vote , we are already choosing who we think is the most qualified to be in power . There are several issues at play here . A lot more goes into a vote than simply who is the most qualified . I would argue that many who voted for Donald Trump do not think he is the most qualified as he has very little experience . A lot of people tend to vote for who they think will help themselves the most , not really who will be the most qualified or who will make the best decisions for the country as a whole . There is no government that is 100 % immune to corruption even in theory . Of course not . But simply because we cannot achieve 100 % should that mean we don ' t even try to limit it ? By that argument , unless we can catch 100 % of drug dealers we shouldn ' t arrest any of them .