The Outstater
The Mamdani Effect
“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” — Thomas Sowell
HAVING WORKED with words all my career, I have admired the economists’ turn of phrase. Shakespearean almost, they pack a lot into a few syllables. My favorite is “rational ignorance,” the realization that certain things are so confused that learning more about them would be a waste of time. Another is “moral hazard,” the risk that a person or entity will behave more recklessly when protected from the negative consequences of their actions.
Even before the rise of New York’s Zohran Mamdani, these thoughts came to mind watching a group of Republicans struggle with immigration and whether Islamism is a religion or an invading civilization. It was one of those “listening” sessions that local politicians organize to tell us what a good job they are doing. I was struck, however, by the unconcern over how this or that policy might affect actual citizens, even a policy as directly impactful as welfare for random immigrants. But the concern, mostly unspoken, was how the donor base might feel.
Regardless of what you think of politicians as a class, such decision-making is perfectly sensible. The media is fragmented and the leadership of the political parties has detached from their bases. The old hometown Chamber legislative committees are long gone. So to be fair, it is difficult for a politician to know what exactly his voters are thinking.
Donors are another matter. They will tell politicians precisely what they think — either face to face or through their ubiquitous lobbying groups. They will even write the laws for them.
Fortunately, we are not an oligarchy — not formally, not yet. We are a republic governed by a democratic process which assumes a connection between policy decisions and the public will. Indeed, it assumes that policy comes from below and not above.
But again, that has been flipped in recent decades. And although the good and descent politicians would have it otherwise they cannot honestly say they are answerable to their constituencies. At least one poll shows that as many as 70 percent of Hoosiers feel their views are left out of the democratic process. Indiana legislators, though, thanks to noncompetitive districts and special-interest money, are reelected at a whopping 97 percent rate.
The great economist Thomas Sowell sums it up: “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
It should come as no surprise then that some officeholders can become walking “moral hazards,” that is, shielded from accountability and recklessly indifferent to your situation or mine. To survive we may have to abandon the comfort of “rational ignorance” and start paying attention.
Let’s call it the “Mamdani Effect.” — tcl
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