“Policy is pointless without power…Putting the wishes of wonks before the desires of voters is the quickest way to ensure defeat. It might not be sensible. But trying to be sensible is sometimes politically rather silly.” - Bagehot/The Economist, Why Labour’s silly energy policy is smart politics. August 18, 2022
Once elected, how do you walk back the promises and govern sensibly?
“Hypocrisy is a favorite charge in politics, because people are . . . I am tempted to write stupid, but it’s really more like busy. They have few incentives to dig into the details and little free time in which to do so. (Economists call this rational ignorance.)” - Kevin D. Williamson/The National Review Hypocrisy for Dummies. August 26, 2022
How do you explain sensible policies to an electorate uninterested in details?
Politicians need voters to trust them to do the right thing and to know what the right thing is. Problem is, promising to do the right thing rarely wins votes, so politicians make promises they should not keep. Unfortunately, politicians lose trust if they don’t follow through on their promises, so that’s what they do when elected, sound policy be damned. Bad governance follows.