Politics Is Based On a Fundamental Lie, says “Cynical Libertarian” Dave Barry| Big Think

I do think politics is very funny, and I think politicians are funny. But, and the fundamental reason I think it is that there, it's all based on a huge lie, kind of like professional sports is based on the lie that it matters whether this team wins or not. It really doesn't, in the end. We just accepted that it was all just kind of a silly entertainment.

Politics is based on the lie that they actually care about you. You know, and I say this, I'm a deeply cynical person and a libertarian. But I've been watching politics fairly close for a long, long time, and in fact, nobody in Washington cares about you. I don't care which side of the aisle; they don't care about you. They care about keeping in the office, you know, having whatever perks and powers above that. They care about winning. You know, and especially today in America, winning is much more important to everybody than ever advancing any particular agenda or ideology. Certainly, helping people is way down the list because you could argue any given issue. Both sides can tell you why it will help you to do what they want you to do.

But in the end, I don't believe that's what they are trying to do. The higher you rise in politics, the less likely it is you're actually trying to help anybody but yourself and your immediate, you know, cohorts. I don't think Trump supporters did get conned. I think they got what they want. They want a guy who— I know a number of Trump supporters, people who you would not necessarily guess were Trump supporters. They're not all white males, and they're not all straight white males, but they support Donald Trump. They still do, not so much I think because they don't believe that he is some kind of great statesman. They don't believe that he is well-versed necessarily on, you know, all the policy details that a president should be versed on.

But they think that he doesn't like what they don't like, and he pisses off people that they want to be pissed off. And they're, you know, basically the Trump supporters— a large part of it— it wasn't racism, it wasn't second-position; it was that to the, you know, the people that they don't like: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the political establishment in general, MSNBC. You know, they're tired of those people. They got mad, and so they voted for Trump.

His behavior since he got elected hasn't really done anything, I think, to diminish that support for him. I think when the people who don't like Donald Trump— and I'm one of them— finally figure out that the way to beat him isn't going to be to keep saying he's a dope, he doesn't know anything. He's, you know, but to find an alternative person who will present something that, you know, people who are kind of resentful of Washington, resentful of the elite establishment, can support, but in an intelligent way. Then, you know, they'll do better.

I would love to see the Democratic Party come up with a good candidate who could appeal to people in Wisconsin and Michigan. I would like to see them come up with somebody who will represent more of a threat to Trump. But, so far, it just seems that it's kind of like the Hillary campaign continued, which consists of saying he's an idiot, he's a sexist, he's a dope. You can't have it, you know, and all the people who like him say we don't care what you say about him; we like him because you don't like him.

Donald Trump does seem humor-impaired in that respect, and I think the easy psychoanalysis is to say he didn't secure, you know, usually when people cannot laugh at themselves, that's what I assume is what's causing that problem. But I think maybe he doesn't seem really to be that, it's he's really willing to be President of the United States, which, you know, he's obviously not qualified to be. So, he's obviously, I think he doesn't have an insecurity issue; I think he just doesn't have a sense of humor. I really don't, I think. And, and he can be funny.

That's the weird thing. He goes, when he was on the, doing his campaign rallies, he was way more entertaining than any of the Republican candidates.