But overall we are equally culpable with the people who tell us what we want to hear and vote the way we actually want them to vote. You know that the first words out of Donald Trump's mouth were to the effect that he was going to protect Social Security and extend healthcare. He claims he's going to pay for it by finding waste fraud and abuse. When a politician tells you he will find waste fraud and abuse reach for your pocketbook and run screaming as fast as your legs can carry you away from him.
The truth is that we voters want our entitlements, we want our subsidies for biofuels in Iowa (and Donald Trump was damn sure to give it to them), we want our Medicare etc. Entitlements are the main cause of our fiscal imbalances yet we punish those politicians who tell us the truth about entitlements and reward those politicians who tell us what we want to hear.
God knows a congress critter is one of the most despicable humanoids on earth but they know their constituents and they serve up (or routinely since Dwight Eisenhower) what their constituents want. Republicans whom we blame so readily for cowardice are smart enough to know that they are on the losing side of an appeal to voters when they say, eat your spinach and no dessert for you tonight.
Pogo, human nature is us.
