Leadership in a democracy

I was just thinking the other day.  We live in a democracy (though more a democratic republic) where we elect people by popular vote.  But this system breeds those who will say what is popular in order to be elected.  To me they are politicians not leaders.  And what we really need are leaders - men and women who will carry out their work based upon moral truth and scientific facts, and not popular opinion or theories.  The opinions of the people of this nation are swayed by a number of things.  1st being the media.  People decide about the state of our nation by what they watch on the news every evening.  So what the media decides is newsworthy is what people are watching.  And what the media decides is news worthy is either supportive of their own political agenda, or whatever they think will gain the points in popularity which will determine how much they get for air time.

I think popular opinion is also swayed by talk show hosts and variety shows like Oprah, Woopie and Ellen on the liberal side, and on the right wing people like Rush.

We need leaders who will stand aloof from such base influence.  Yet the very political machine this nation now has creates those and encourages those who both seek and support popular opinion.

So the paradox is this - we elect people by popular vote, but we need people who are not controlled or highly influenced by popular opinion.  We need those who by strength of character and convictions create a new national opinion that is based on absolute moral truth and scientific fact.