They’re Just Dumb

Created
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 05:30
Updated
Thu, 16/11/2023 - 05:30
I know it’s mean to say it, but it’s important to acknowledge. Jill Filipovic writes about “that which cannot be mentioned” in her great newsletter today. It has to be said: One basic rule of being a person who opines on politics is that you are not allowed to disrespect voters. Voters, you are supposed to say, are very smart and thoughtful people; it is the politicians who are bad, who do not deliver, who do not give them what they want or need. If politicians behaved differently, then voters — good people, rational people — would respond accordingly…. But also, a lot of people are stupid, paranoid, incompetent and irrational. I know, this is a very disrespectful thing to say (“deplorable” would have been more polite). And there are of course some Trump voters who are perfectly kind of their neighbors and I am sure are, in many contexts, utterly decent people. There are some Trump voters who aren’t cult loyalist but normie Republicans who want normie Republican things, like tax breaks for the rich, unfettered capitalism, and women forced into submission. But can we just be honest and say that in a nation of hundreds of millions of people, some significant proportion of those who have latched onto an obvious pathological narcissist are not, in fact, smart, competent, rational people? And that assuming they are — assuming that Democrats just need the right policies or at least the right messaging — is a fool’s errand? Elections are won…