Reasoned Opinion

Blogger and law professor Ilya Somin, writing at the Foundation for Economic Education, offers some possible reasons why smart politicians say stupid things.

There's a few obvious assumptions in his question, but I think they're justified. Given the number of politicians in the world, the idea that there would be two or more of them who are smart -- thus allowing the use of the plural -- seems reasonable. And there's probably no reason to wonder why stupid politicians say stupid things. It's because they've opened their mouths and words have come out, and those words have no source other than the politician's own brain.

Somin suggests that smart politicians say things that people want to hear, and all too frequently what the people want to hear is nonsense. They don't necessarily see it as such, but it is nonsense nonetheless. Some politicians in the last several years have said that requiring everyone to buy health insurance and requiring insurers to fund treatment even for illnesses that existed before coverage began will lower the cost of insurance. A lot of economists said that was nonsense, and so it happens to be. But a lot of people wanted to believe it. They wanted it to be true. They wanted to believe that the insurance industry drew up a plan to lower or cover insurance costs. So they did, and they turned out to be wrong.

Extensive polling data can tell politicians what people believe. And those who really want to be elected might say some of those things even if they disagree with them.

It's some business when being smart means knowing you will have to say something dumb in order to get what you want.