Sunday, January 28, 2018

A Word With Which To Start Thinking About 2018: Kakistocracy

There's a line from Jason Miller's play, "That Championship Season" that, for some reason, has always stuck with me.  The line has one of the main characters describe someone as being "too stupid to be corrupt."  Perhaps it's simply because it's a funny line.  Perhaps because there's an important truth wrapped up in the humor:   deceit, in order to accomplish its aims, has to have a degree of talent behind it, often talent that could be put to a better purpose.  Whatever the reason, it turns out I'm not the only admirer of this line, because I have seen it--or variations of it--in a variety of contexts, especially political ones. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, I have seen it used with reference to Donald Trump, and his conduct in the Oval Office over the past year.  In some cases, the intention has been to reassure the American people that, contrary to their worst fears, as well as to appearances, things aren't as bad as they may seem.  Trump is, ultimately, too stupid as well as too lazy to be a true totalitarian.  He'd much rather spend time on a golf course, especially one of his own golf courses, than conquering a nation or torturing his opponents.  Or even, for that matter, how to ask those around him how he could go about doing those things.

Unfortunately, anyone who allows themselves the luxury of being comforted by this line of reason is living in something far worse than a fool's paradise.  Something close to the tenth circle of Dante's Inferno--if not in our lifetimes, then in those of our children and grandchilden.

That something far worse can be, and has been by The Atlantic, summed up in a single word:  kakistocracy.  As defined by the linked article, kakistocracy amounts to government by the corrupt, placed into power by a corrupt leader backed by a corrupt constituency.  Trump, obviously, is the corrupt leader in the case of our current misery.  As for the corrupt constituency of that misery, the article views it as a tandem:  Trump voters, blinded by Trump's real estate and TV credentials.  Their unthinking votes, along with a Republican Party establishment that cared only about regaining the White House, ultimately outweighed the will of 54% of the American voting public.

But, once Trump was in place in the Oval Office, the membership of the kakistocracy grew exponentially, to include his staff, the Republican Congress elected along with him, and the leadership of the agencies that operate under presidential authority.  Many of the individuals who make up each of these cohorts are far from idiots--and, like the GOP establishment, they are motivated only by a desire for power, for themselves and the private interests they represent.

And it's not just The Atlantic describing this in detail, as well as the effects this is having on our domestic and foreign interests.  There's also this by Michelle Goldberg, writing in the New York Times, in which she also notes that Trump's stupidity, conceded by everyone who spends any amount of time working with him, is not always contained successfully, as in the case of Trump's firing of James Comey as F.B.I. director.  Trump is aware that he is being managed and, rather than submit to the process, he is working actively to surmount it.  As Goldberg herself points out, "Now imagine Trump taking the same approach toward ordering the bombing of North Korea."  One's imagination does not have to stretch very far to be completely horrified by the implications of that sentence.

Trump is indeed an idiot, by the standards of our very best Presidents.  He has no curiosity, no belief in anyone's expertise except his own (such as that is), no willingness to consider the lessons of history, no interest in trusting the judgment even of the people he's selected to staff his Administration, and, perhaps worst of all, no ability to even consider the possibility of being wrong, or to accept responsibility when he is in fact wrong.

But none of this is stopping Trump from effectively being corrupt.  Not only has he been enabled by the political apparatus of which he is now a part, but he is also finding ways to circumvent that apparatus when he needs to eliminate a perceived or actual threat.  That need is the only thing that seems to motivate him to pay attention to what's going on around him outside of the disco of his mind.  And what's best for Donald Trump is not always what's best for the country.  Which is why we should have no confidence in the people who think they are "containing" him.

Especially when the damage that has already been done by the Trump White House, the GOP Congress, and the GOP itself (as well as its media/Internet echo chamber) has already percolated down through some of the biggest, most important Federal agencies, like the Social Security Administration, jeopardizing the financial interests of our country's most vulnerable citizens.

Or down to the level of State government, where, in the case of North Carolina, democracy has almost disappeared.

Or down to the level of individuals willing to speak out against Republican corruption, who suddenly find themselves the victims of cowards willing to take their political differences to the level of violence.

Or down to the level at which the truth itself is in jeopardy, through Republican efforts to confuse the public about who is and is not breaking the law.  (Hint:  nowadays, in the majority of cases, it's the folks pointing the fingers, not the people on the other end of the pointing.)

I'm afraid there is no such thing, after all, as being too stupid to be corrupt.  If corruption plus stupidity puts stupidity into power, and then manipulates the stupidity for its own benefit, the rest of us are left to wonder whether an analysis of stupidity vs. corruption is an attempt to find a distinction where, as measured by the results, there is no difference.  They are both the enemies of truth, justice and the American way.  And, if we are ever to get out of the kakistocracy into which we have fallen, we will need to find ways to simultaneously fight both

And give in to neither.

Kakistocracy:  the marriage of the stupid and the corrupt.  Remember that word.  Remember what it means.  And, on all fronts, fight it like hell.

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