March 3, 2010

America the stupid

By: AF Editors

Matt Continetti made a very good point in last week’s Standard. On the one hand, the unpopularity of Obamacare has led quite a few liberal writers to argue that the real problem with our system of government is the ignorance of its citizens. At the same time, other liberal writers advance a competing argument that there’s nothing wrong with the people, only with a Senate that frustrates the will of the people.

Of the two arguments, I like neither, but think that blaming the Senate is at least plausible. If Jacob Weisberg and Joe Klein think Americans are ignorant, is that ignorance also responsible for putting Obama in the White House and installing large Democratic majorities in Congress? Yet according to

Jacob Weisberg in Newsweek, the “biggest culprit” behind “our political paralysis” is the “childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.” You simply do not know what’s good for you. “On many issues these days,” writes the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein, “the American people are badly confused.” “The people may have spoken,” writes the New -Yorker’s James Surowiecki. “It’s just not clear that they’re making any sense.” In a blog post titled “Too Dumb to Thrive,” Time magazine’s Joe Klein cuts to the chase: “It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you’re a nation of dodos.”

Of course, the people get lots of things wrong. We’re just human. But you can’t just blame the people when they disagree with you.