Word Of The Day: Kakistocracy - Updated

No, it doesn't mean government by people wearing khakis.

From dictionary.com: noun, government by the worst persons, a form of government in which the worst persons are in power.

It's an esoteric word, that I had never heard of before today. Does anyone actually use it in conversation? Actually, yes. Former CIA Director John Brennan used it today in a tweet:

Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey.  As the greatest Nation history has known, we have the opportunity to emerge from this nightmare stronger & more committed to ensuring a better life for all Americans, including those you have so tragically deceived. https://t.co/eC6LATH2Gd

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) April 13, 2018

This is what Brennan is responding to:

James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH. He is a weak and.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018

....untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018

I can imagine many conversations about who is, in fact, the weak and untruthful slime ball. Is the kakistocracy collapsing? I hope so.

Saturday morning update: I'm not the only one who had to look up kakistocracy. According to the Washington Post, yesterday was a "productive vocabulary day" in the U.S.:

The learning began in the morning, when former CIA director John O. Brennan tweeted at President Trump: “Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey.”

The insult was part of a raging feud between Trump and various members of the intelligence community, some of whom suspect the president’s inner circle of committing federal crimes, and many of whom Trump says are out to destroy him.

Brennan’s tweet proved quite popular with Trump’s critics, even if not everyone totally understood it.

… Kleptocracy means a government by thieves, and autocracy means government by one person. Both of those terms have been used liberally by Trump’s critics in the last year or so, but kakistocracy … was that like a government of cack, as in dung?

Actually, yeah, kind of.

Searches for the kakistocracy surged to the top of Merriam-Webster, arguably the hippest of the major dictionaries, which recently made “dumpster fire” an official English word.

What was the second-most popular look-up of the day? "Slimeball." Read the article here.