The US Election Again (sorry)
Matthew Parris, in defense of the liberal elite:
The second irony is that excusing Trump supporters for believing nonsense and placing their faith in a rascally demagogue on the grounds that they know not what they do, and college-educated people drove them to it, is deeply if subtly insulting. It’s as if we consider them to be children, unable to make informed decisions. Be clear: we liberals do not believe a Trump presidency will be in the interests of Trump supporters. Yet the poor lambs have been deceived by his infantile promises. It must be our fault, we grown-ups who (unlike them) have rumbled him.
It’s time we stopped patronising populists by cooing that we’re sorry we didn’t listen and will henceforward do our best to ‘address their concerns’. We should treat them as the adults they are, and tell them, man to man, that their concerns cannot be met. In countries like Britain or America, where money, talent and ambition gravitate towards clusters where success breeds success, we cannot realistically level-up with scarce public funds when the Treasury’s cupboard is bare.
Those who vote for authoritarian populists or for foolish policies have no one else to blame. It’s not any ‘liberal elites’ who forced them; it is their own responsibility.
/g