I don't even think much about politicians. I think about the people in the audience who applaud the politicians. They are your fellow countrymen and they're the ones you live with - that should be who we target for education and enlightenment.
Society needs to see science not as a luxury of funding but as a fundamental activity that drives enlightenment, economics, and security.
The limits on your enlightenment come not from the age you stopped going to school but from the age you stopped being curious.