Are politicians dumber than the rest of us?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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Cecil’s column: Are politicians dumber than the rest of us? - The Straight Dope

Good column. I’ve been in and around politics my entire adult life, including two internships on Capitol Hill and working or volunteering on numerous campaigns. I’d say the average politician is no dumber and no smarter than the average person. Obviously there are outliers at both ends of the spectrum.

FWIW, Google gives 12,400 hits for “blathering idiot,” as Cecil wrote, but 141,000 hits for “blithering idiot.” But politicians do blather, so…

Lastly, I’m surprised Cecil didn’t quote the immortal Mark Twain: “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Congressman. But I repeat myself.”

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Looking at the last paragraph in the column (about personality):

I’ve long held that there is a personality type which naturally results in one of two career paths: “leader” or “criminal”. Both are strongly disinclined to follow existing rules and prefer to make their own.

The main differentiation betwixt 'em is whether the person gets into a position of being the former before becoming identified as the latter, because to some extent becoming a “leader” immunizes you from being considered a criminal, at least as long as you can stay on top. If you make your own rules and can get everyone to follow them, you’re a leader. If you make your own rules and everyone else follows the old rules, you’re a criminal.

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I have argued before, and do so now again, that many politicians, especially at the Congressional or national level, are significantly *smarter *than the average American. You cannot succeed in the cutthroat world of politics without possessing a lot of savvy. You need to be able to win over financial donors, hold your own in political debates, be informed on a wide range of issues, be able to deliver political verbal barbs, argue in front of a televised audience or a large crowd , answer questions immediately, be constantly on your feet, and understand what impact your decisions will have on your ability to get elected or reelected. You have to face a potentially hostile media.

The notion that politicians are dumb is something the American public likes to believe because it makes us feel good, but it’s probably not the case.

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Or be well connected with a famous name (like your Daddy was a Congressman/Senator/Mayor). Gets you elected almost every time.

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I usually assume that most people are not geniuses, like me. That goes for politicians, too.

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I suspect any person’s insistence that a certain politician of any flavor is an idiot, or genius, is directly proportional to the degree you agree with their views.

All other points are confirmation of exactly that.

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I think also people don’t understand politicians goals. Which generally involve getting into - and staying in - power, which in turn involves pandering to donors and to the half of the electorate of below average intelligence.

So quite often politicians say or do something that appears stupid if you are interested in good policy, but seems quite smart when you realise the politicians’ goals, which only rank “good policy” as about third in importance.

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This needs to be repeated ad infinitum until it sinks in. Politicians are no different than any other organism: they respond to the stimuli they are presented with while attempting to maximize their gain from their environment. That the typical voter thinks politicians are in office to serve the country just goes to show how little they understand what those stimuli are.

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I think that part of it is that particularly egregious cases (e.g. Sarah Palin) have a disproportionate impact on public perception.

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I have a good deal of contact with politicians at the state level. My impression is that most of them are brighter than average, and a goodly chunk of them much more so. There are a few dim bulbs (and everyone knows exactly who they are), but most of them are pretty damned sharp.

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This is exactly right. Politicians on average are smarter than the populace which is why politicians form the ruling class.

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A number of years back I was involved in a situation where policy considerations were trampled underfoot by populist political behaviour, affecting a certain entity badly. I was part of a delegation that went to Canberra to try to get powerbrokers there to help.

We had a meeting with a Very Big Name (if you are Australian, you’ve heard of him). He was a former politician, but by then one of the very top (non elected) executives of the Australian government. He said, very bluntly, virtually before we had sat down, that there was no point in us explaining to him just what appalling damage was being done to good policy by the situation; he totally understood that. His words then were, “you are being crunched between politics and policy. And so I can’t help you.”

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I wouldn’t say politicians are dumb. They are smart enough to get away with anything. Look at Donald “Repeat offender” Trump, and all the felonies he has committed.

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The big parties here (Aus, state and Federal) have to put up candidates in every house of reps electorate, even the unwinable safe seats, because of the way the senate elections work. You have to use beginners or long-timers for that, because no real candidate would want to waste his time in an unwinable contest.

Often they are just party faithful: sometimes they are incurably dumb. If and when unexpectedly elected, the party gives them an “advisor” who tells them what to say. If they are incurably dumb, they get an “advisor” to tell them not say anything.