posted 06-09-2008 10:21 AM            

quote:

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Originally linked by annef:
... while Washington does often become isolated from the rest of the country and its feelings, the rest of the country also becomes isolated from Washington and the facts.

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I find that disturbing. Because there's a grain of truth there.

Voters are rationally ignorant. The public-choice theory explaining why is sound and the empirical data supports the theory. However, once government is your job, then being ignorant is no longer rational. So, yeah, Washingtonians are probably more in touch with the facts than the average voter.

I noticed the same thing after I got sucked into local politics a few years back. Having been put into a position to see the information and reasoning behind local decisions, I find myself growing impatient with colleagues at work who generally share my political predilections but seem unaware how stupid they sound when they spout off dogmatic opinions unencumbered by any understanding of what was behind the decisions.

(That is not to say that none of the people involved in the decision making are flaming idiots. Possession of the facts is helpful but does not, of itself, cure flaming idiocy.)

So why are we so unhappy with the way we are being ruled? Notwithstanding the reasoning and experience I offer above, I still feel like Congress is an asylum for congenital idiots. Anyone want to resolve this cognitive dissonance for me?