A book that would be hilarious if it wasn’t so important is Andy Borowitz’s ‘Profiles in Ignorance - How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber’ (2022). You will recall most of the instances mentioned if you are over 60 but to see them all written down, in a row, is quite frightening.
What is especially interesting is his characterisation of the three stages in the history of stupid politicians:
1. Ridicule - we laugh at the stupid (e.g. Reagan and Quayle) so dumb politicians have to pretend to be smart
2. Acceptance - we accept leadership by the stupid (e.g. Dubya) so dumb politicians are free to seem dumb
3. Celebration - we compete at the stupid level to remove nuance and complexity (e.g. Trump) so smart politicians must pretend to be dumb
We, the voters, are also stupid. Some more so than others. As I said yesterday some votes will lead to you getting the outcome you least want, yet people still don’t change.
One of the worst reasons for changing of all, although many are doing it, is called ‘backing the winners’. With polls showing a seemingly unshakeable Labour lead some of the tabloid press who normally back the Tories will call their readers to back Labour. They want to be associated with the winners. And some of us will do the same.
Equally human is this. When asked how they voted in 2019, the polls show nothing like a Tory majority of 90. We want to back winners and we won’t admit it if we backed a poor government, even to a pollster who guarantees anonymity
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