Kakistocracy (n.)

Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. See: Alabama. And all the governments therein.

I can't believe I did not know this word. Kakistocracy. It's full of the stuff that makes Alabama Alabama. It was coined in 1829, by the English writer Thomas Love Peacock. It came from the Greek - kakos -- or bad. And kakos, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, "is related to the general Indo-European word for 'defecate.'"

See: Alabama government.

Not just because Alabama's governor is under investigation by everybody from the postal service to the FBI. Not just because the speaker of the House is preparing to go to trial for using and abusing his office to enrich himself. Not even because the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court faces charges that could boot him off the bench for the second time.

It's all that, but it is way more than that.

This week a non-profit focusing on infrastructure -- the Road Information Program, or TRIP - ranked the 50 most needed highway projects across Alabama. They are 50 spots in Huntsville and Birmingham, in Mobile and Montgomery and in rural areas across the state that are most important to the state's health and prosperity.

"To achieve sustainable economic growth, Alabama must proceed with numerous projects to improve key roads, bridges and highways," the study said.

Not on that list is the Northern Beltline in Jefferson County, the $5.3 billion (with a b) boondoggle that was catapulted to life by those whose principles are too often determined by their own profits. That's the priority now.

But here's the thing. You could build all 50 of the "most needed" road projects for what it will cost to build the Northern Beltline. And you'd still have enough money left over to build a domed stadium.

See: Kakistocracy.

Alabama is a state that has struggled just to read. A few years ago the reading level among elementary children was lowest in the country, but something called the Alabama Reading Initiative helped make gains. Reading comprehension and fluency rose. Children read better.

Which gives them a better chance to succeed. And prosper. And contribute to Alabama.

So what did the Alabama Legislature do? It cut funding to the program by 15 percent, or $7 million. So schools where the reading program worked will see their funding cut to make up the difference.

Sorry kids. You learned too well.

It's worth noting that legislators did want to gain points with teachers, and gave them small but long-overdue raises. They had to make it up somewhere, so they made it up on children struggling to learn to read.

Which, when you think about it, is the best way to perpetuate a kakistocracy.

And then there are prisons. Everybody knows Alabama needs twice the space it now has to house inmates. It's considered the most crowded prison system in the country, with stabbings and lockdowns as common as Montgomery idiocy. But instead of funding prisons well enough to keep the peace, instead of developing good and transparent plans to build new prisons, Alabama lawmakers took a different approach.

They did nothing but find new ways to put people in prison.

A new law makes possession of a plant called kratom a felony, punishable by up to five years in jail. Now I don't know much about kratom. But it's a plant you could buy in gas stations last month, and it makes you a felon today. That's what passes for problem solving.

In the kakistocracy.

It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Politicians scream about waste, and then they waste our time and resources and money. They run for office on the premise that government cannot be trusted.

Then they get into office and prove it.

Alabama has to break this cycle. She's had enough of this kakos.