Don't Blame the Voters
To be enlightened, and to correct course, we must blame the right things
Whatever you do, don't blame the voters. They are our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters, our grandmas and grandpas.
I'm not going to point any fingers, but lately intelligent friends and colleagues have been poo-pooing the 77,303,573 Americans who voted to restore Donald Trump to the Oval Office.
They shake their heads in disbelief. Their eyes bulge with incredulity. They are flabbergasted.
What type of person could possibly vote for Trump after all he has said and done? What’s the matter with them?
Respectfully, if you are in this camp of voter-blamers, I encourage you to reconsider.
Voters are not responsible for the awful mess we’re in. Our two political parties are, both of them—the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
The first responsibility of a political party, after all, is to weed out bad eggs—that is, demagogues and authoritarians—from the presidential pipeline.
Why? Because, as several millennia of history reveal, human beings vote for demagogues! By no fault of their own, homo sapiens believe disinformation, and, riled up by it, they often leap headfirst into cults of strongman personality.
It’s human nature—something embedded in our DNA. It’s brain science.
Therefore, news flash, we have to be ever-vigilant about how we structure and administer a democracy.
Wait and see what our British reform guides, Trenchard and Gordon, have to say about demagogues and human nature. In Cato’s Letters, they reveal how ignorant we are today about the fundamentals of free government.
Hit Reply to Agree . . . or Disagree
Continuing our analysis, what happens after a political party makes the grave mistake of presenting a demagogue to the people as a candidate for the all-powerful post of head of state?
Well, just look around. When political parties act recklessly in this way, a demagogue may win, and, whoops, the rest is living history.
I often think of our species as homo culpans instead of homo sapiens because when bad stuff happens, humans blame. It’s how we’re wired. We’re experts at it. Blame is what we do in families, neighborhoods, work, and, right now, writ large, in politics.
Yet, in order to be enlightened, and to correct course, we must blame the right things.
And, in the case of Trump’s re-ascension to executive power, the right thing to blame is our political parties.
In the 1970s, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party conspired together to set up an absurdist, foolhardy presidential nominating system, one that ties the hands of party delegates to whomever primary voters choose, be that nominee a demagogue, tyrant, dictator, rapist, child molester, murderer, or traitor to the Constitution.
Yes, that’s our presidential nominating system. Isn’t it glorious?
Whatever you do, don't blame—or belittle—the voters. They are our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters, our grandmas and grandpas.
The voters were duped by a demagogue riding the wave of a truly deranged media system. And that demagogue-media-industrial complex is still duping them today.
Instead, unleash the broadsides of your blame at our presidential nominating system—and the two parties that engineered it.
Nearly nine years out from the Republican National Convention’s first nomination of Trump, I can’t fathom the recklessness of our presidential nominating system.
My eyes are bulging with incredulity. I am flabbergasted.
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Eli Merritt is a psychiatrist and historian who writes about the origins of our present political discontents and solutions to them. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune, among other publications.
He writes American Commonwealth and is the author or editor of the books “Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution,” “Demagogue in the White House: Lessons Learned from the Presidency of Donald J. Trump,” and “How to Save Democracy: Advice and Inspiration from 95 World Leaders”
More articles by Eli Merritt
Books
The Curse of Demagogues: Lessons Learned from the Presidency of Donald J. Trump
Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution
How to Save Democracy: Advice and Inspiration from 95 World Leaders
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PS. I take issue with not blaming Trump voters for the inevitable mess America (or at least the world) will find itself in. I believe it is a citizen's solemn duty to get themselves adequately informed, be temperate in judgment, and be mindful of the impacts on others when they vote. On all points, Trump voters failed mightily; for that, I would call it a moral lapse that deserves condemnation. Perhaps you can muster up forgiveness because they were lied to. I cannot, as most of them relish the hate they nurture and the hurt they cause to others. Moreover, I also think it is condescending to Trump voters to explain away their choices.
I have several issues that I could address but the first and most egregious is that the first responsibility of a political party is to weed out "bad eggs" even given the subsequent definition as demagogues and authoritarians . While there are absolute definitions of those terms in any dictionary they are fact defined by the "masses", voters with each election. Certainly this is the case with bad eggs. The primary responsibility of a political party is its own persistence and power, often by any means. Republicans thought Goldwater was a good egg despite his racist leanings and certainly many white southerners thought the world of George Wallace. The current version of republicanism thinks, despite his moral and ethical failings, that Trump would aid in the persistence of their party and the growth of power; hence his sad presence in our lives. I do blame the average American voter. I also agree that an educational system decomposing from within and without plays an enormous role. Only slightly more than 50% of high school seniors can find France on a map and a state senator in Texas argued against the teaching of simple logic because it might make students question their religion. Parents at school board meetings conflate being taught how to think with being taught what to think. My wife is a retired professor of music theory and would, as occurs, at times deal with freshmen. Often, when questioned about their career choices some would mention teaching. Why? "Because you get the summer off". Social Studies has long been off the menu of school subjects. With the enormous number of sources of information, however, there stands no reason why the average person couldn't clearly define DJT as rotten to the core. I do belittle the average American voter who seems to feel that flying a flag alone makes you a good citizen and yet cannot answer even a few of the questions on the citizenship test e.g. what is the name of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Democracy truly is "a mechanism whereby the people get the government they deserve".