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.
You decry the nominating system, and yes it's so weird how for generations now, candidates with fresh or radical (progressive) ideals have been sidelined, from Eugene to Bernie, without ever really even getting their arguments out on the table, but you also have to dig into how those ideals have been tarnished so badly. I mean for God's sake, John Kerry lost the election because he speaks French fluently (I exaggerate, but not much). Clinton triangulated with Gingrich as a gesture of goodwill, and all it got him was more intransigent resistance and non-cooperation from the opposition. What Clinton never got in return was a good faith discussion, the conservatives were only interested in leverage. I just wonder when Dems could have raised a defense of democracy and democratic process and what they could have said that would have withstood the mockery of neocon vandals from Reagan, through Gingrich and Norquist, Bush, Limbaugh, and now the cacophony of triumphant douchebags. Every one of those guys and their followers made arguments that were both stupid and compelling or appealing, as long as you ignored the stupid. What's the fix for that stupid and who's to blame?