The Dumb Trap

There’s a lot of talk out there today about whether Rick Perry is dumb or not. After all, the guy got Cs and Ds in college, ignores science, and doesn’t seem to care about learning anything new. All of this is not only beside the point—it’s a classical fool’s trap. Why? Because in politics we’re not measuring IQ points, SAT scores, US News college rankings, arugula consumption or any other effete virtue. We’re measuring votes and popularity.

We’re measuring how people feel about a candidate. On election day, no matter how we arrive at the polls, we all ask the same questions. “Do I like the guy?” “Do I trust him?” “Does what he says make sense to me?” Our differences are in how we arrive at the desire to vote for one person over another, or whether to vote at all. Some of us ask things like, “Is he rational?” or “Is he a good critical thinker?” and others ask, “Does he share my values?” or “Will he stand up for people like me?” All of these are good questions, but different people will prioritize them differently. A successful candidate will answer them all to the satisfaction of the majority.

I don’t want a dummy in office. I also don’t want someone who’s callous, craven or capricious. I don’t want a sanctimonious moralizer for president, but I also don’t want a Mr. Spock technocrat. But if we just write a candidate off as dumb, we cede all authority to analyze whether we share his values or challenge is ideas and actions. We give him a massive inborn advantage, absolving him of responsibility and freeing him to gladhand and dazzle the very people with the most to lose by his policies, all because he seems to respect people like them and speaks in ways that make sense.

Too often I hear people say, “he appeals to idiots,” putting aside the fact that those “idiots” all have the same rights and privileges as we do as citizens of this country, that they have real grievances, are entitled to their opinions, and ultimately will vote for one person over another. I don’t care if they’re idiots, and even if I did, shouldn’t it be easier, not harder, to convince them we’re right? How smart is my side if we can’t even talk to people in ways that make sense to them? How can you be so interested in improving the lot of the average working guy and not start with at least a modicum of respect.

The things I have make me privileged, but I know it’s not easy to make ends meet on a high school education, or to come up poor in a rust belt town. More important, I know people don’t want to hear it from me. Luckily, it’s not about me, where I was born, or what I know. George W Bush proved that. So did Obama. It’s in how I communicate. People want some inspiration, some sense of optimism, some basic humanity, some way to identify with a stranger.

A little empathy and humility is often so well-received that it’s shocking that the ivory tower set hasn’t figured it out yet. Even after Reagan and Bush, these brilliant professors scratch their heads in puzzlement, searching the literature for answers when all they need to do is look in the mirror.

American government is designed to give a powerful voice to people outside of the rarefied cosmopolitan settings that typically govern other countries. People at the rural margins have much more power in the American system than anywhere else in the world. The Senate assures that Wyoming has the same vote as New York in one branch of government. The Electoral College means we elect presidents largely by winner-takes-all measures of state delegates, rather than by national popular vote. Culturally, we have no history of noblesse oblige, and no old world class structure.  We will not be governed by our “betters.” More than anywhere else, if you want to win in American politics you must be of the people, and not just for the people.

Meanwhile, cultural snobbery is real. People of my background are all guilty of it, and it’s getting worse. Every disparaging comment about how “the white trash,” or “flyover country” is ignorant or immoral only widens the divide between us as Americans with a common fate. There’s something wrong when people care about a stranger’s employment prospects or insurance status but resent who they are individuals who are into QVC or NASCAR.

Like it or not, this is your country. If you want to make it a better place for people to live, you must first be able to actually talk to them. For all his weaknesses as a candidate, Rick Perry is really, really good at that. It’s time to step up our game. Way, way past time, actually.