Are you living in a meritocracy where the people in office are the most deserving of our votes?

Two words, Boris Johnson (so that's an emphatic "no" then).

[quote]Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
— Winston S. Churchill
[/quote]

You did manufacture a nice straw-man fallacy though, I'll give you that!