No, Don -

Politicians are a devolved - not evolved - form, and it's the obvious result of excessive inbreeding, coupled with the physical destruction of mental capacity that results from rituals involving excessive exposure to addictive substances generically called "money".

It should be noted that Darwin and following theorists were quite clear that you can't "inherit" an injury, so the brain damage caused by access to addictive substances isn't, itself, passed on. The devolution of polititions does quite nicely illustrate the way in which those with a genetic susceptibility to a resource that is not, in itself, beneficial may sequester themselves into isolated "tribes" where social custom protects an otherwise harmful trait that would be visibly harmful in the wider environment.

It was the isolation of the individual populations in the Galapagos that gave Darwin clear insight into the persistence of traits having specific value. Conditions appear to have remained relatively unchanged over a long long period. Something that gave a group added survival value could persist, and would remain of value long enough to evolve unique characteristics in a small population.

In a more cosmopolitan environment, a feature that gives some advantage will often cease to be advantageous when other species intrude. Competing species may, in fact, learn to take advantage of a prosperous group and may learn to take advantage of the unique characteristic(s) possessedd by that group. Hunters may themselves evolve changes making them able to prey on - and sometimes extinguish - any uniquely adapted and sufficiently prosperous group. Hunter populations may, in short, use the unique adaptation of a prey group to enhance their own ability to capture and consume the prey. In this environment, it can be dangerous to be "too different," so evolution must proceed much more slowly.

Darwin clearly understood that the more species there are to interact, and to prey on each other, the less likely that a single trait will survive long enough to completely isolate an individual population, so where there are many competing species everything tends toward an "average."

The "politician group" has reached nearly the status of a distinct species, since interbreeding with other populations seems nearly impossible. Successful entry of an "outsider" into this group now quite obviously demands an extremely strong expression of the "greed gene," and/or some other adaptation that provides a unique ability to acquire the sacred ritual substance "money."

Interaction with other populations of similar individuals illustrates additionally the hunter/prey interaction, where particular evolved characteristics of a prey are used to advantage by the "hunting" group, as most sustenance for "politicians" is derived from the prey group within which the "idiot gene" is most strongly expressed.

John