When voters mistake stupidity for authenticity, we are all in danger

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This was published 6 years ago

When voters mistake stupidity for authenticity, we are all in danger

By Janet Daley

Are we at war yet? Newspaper deadlines being what they are, you may, at the time of reading, be in a better position to answer that question than this column. With startling suddenness, the world has reached one of those moments when catastrophic news seems imminent: in which, indeed, the chief actors actually appear to be willing events to take the most devastating, unthinkable course. Or is it all just noise? Belligerent, idiotic, irresponsible mouthing off by national leaders who are, by general global agreement, unfit to hold office? The consensus at the moment is that this is the best we can hope for.

We know how Kim Jong-un was put in place. He is the hereditary leader of a corrupt totalitarian regime in the world's last fully Communist stronghold, who succeeded to power without any need of a democratic mandate. But what on earth has happened in America? What, for that matter, has happened in a number of mature Western societies whose electorates have decided that all their experienced politicians are so repulsive that they would rather be led by a hot-headed know-nothing or a puerile fantasist untainted by familiarity with government.

It is not the case that voters are rejecting one particular brand of governing, or any specific set of economic solutions: they are just blowing up the whole idea that experience and knowledge might be needed to run a country. And this at a time when modern nationhood and global economics are more complex and sophisticated than ever before: when more, not less, expertise and competence would seem to be required as basic qualifications.

Perhaps political consciousness really has been corrupted by popular culture with voters treating the democratic process as if it were a reality TV show in which they vote out the contestant they have decided to dislike for whatever frivolous reasons. Or maybe the impact of social media has elevated benighted prejudice to equal status with real knowledge and judgment.

Trump advises the country to ignore what all the conniving cynics in Washington say.

Trump advises the country to ignore what all the conniving cynics in Washington say.Credit: Bloomberg

Voters seem to be demanding that they be governed by people who sincerely understand their desires but who are so unaware of the workings of government that they are incapable of fulfilling them. Authenticity equals stupidity – or maybe the other way round.

Donald Trump's infantile egotism means that he can blithely deliver statements which are outrageously and demonstrably false. What his supporters clearly assume is that their own simplistic naivety could be a working solution for national leadership if only somebody would try it.

This, it would seem, is the new concept of democracy: the absence of experience and knowledge becomes the highest recommendation for office because you sound just like the demos, otherwise known as ordinary people. The more crass or simple-minded or demotic your pronouncements are, the more trustworthy you must be.

Trump advises the country to ignore what all the conniving cynics in Washington say: not only does he think like the guys in the bar but he behaves as if he's still outside the Washington institutional network, re-tweeting unreliable news stories when he could get accurate information from his own governmental agencies. He knows he must go on with this guileless outsider charade even though he is in the White House.

How much more of this can the integrity of democratic politics withstand?

Telegraph, London

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