“The doom loop of modern politics”
Posted by
Loyola
Jul 16 '24, 12:00
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“We can deride politicians, but ultimately the joke is on us.
Hatred of the political class deters good people from the job, which makes government worse, which makes voters hate politicians still more.
Almost everyone deplores such attacks. The problem is, after that, the consensus flakes. The spectrum of behaviour that goes up to, but not over, the line of violence inspires less concern or even interest than it should. The harassment of candidates in Britain’s election has been met a sinister breeziness. To be clear, then: the anti-politician culture is wrong in and of itself. But more than that, it is self-reinforcing.
This is the doom loop of modern politics: it is an ever more unpleasant line of work, which means fewer good people choose it, which depletes the quality of public life – that is, governance itself and the comportment of those responsible for it – which in turn makes voters more hostile to politicians. And back around again.
It is natural to attribute the anti-politician mood to governmental failures: the botched wars, the misregulation of banks, the British state’s formidable achievement of rising taxes and deteriorating outcomes. There isn’t anything like the same curiosity about the source of those failures. What if the causal link runs the other way? What if an inept state is the ultimate fruit of anti-politics? Is Congress the least trusted institution in American surveys because it is so bad, or so bad because it is mistrusted, and therefore daunting to those who might otherwise enter and elevate it? Deride the political class. It’s a right. But the joke, in the end, is on us.“
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