Britain’s Conservatives doomed themselves by insulting their constituents’ intelligence. Across the Atlantic, Joe Biden is making the same mistake

The blunder that, more than anything else, doomed Rishi Sunak is being repeated catastrophically on the other side of the Atlantic.

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Rishi Sunak seems like a man who unironically enjoys corporate-speak. In that spirit, here is one key learning from his party’s humiliation in today’s British election: don’t treat voters like idiots. It sounds so simple! Surely no one needs to be told such a thing. And yet.

The excruciatingly drawn-out death throes of this Conservative government have involved an almost impressive level of contempt for the British public.

Aided by a Labour Party that spent years stubbornly determined to remain as unelectable as possible, the Tories survived austerity, and Brexit, and the decay of public services under their care. They could not survive the reckoning that inevitably comes when you shamelessly, habitually insult people’s intelligence.

I’m not talking about the garden variety political dishonesty that spews forth from every politician, of every persuasion. I mean the type of dishonesty that expects the listener to ignore what’s right in front of their face.

Rishi Sunak. Picture: Justin Tallis/AFP

Think of Boris Johnson and his staff breaking their own government’s Covid lockdown rules, partying in Downing Street at a time when normal members of the public could not even visit dying loved ones. Then claiming to have done nothing wrong. When there were photos. As though voters were all blind.

Think of the Conservative Party pretending Liz Truss, as feckless as Jeff Bezos is bald, was a modern Margaret Thatcher.

Think of Mr Sunak trying to reinvent himself as the “change” candidate, while leading a government that had already been in power for 14 years.

Think of the harebrained, half-cooked scheme to deter asylum seekers by sending them to Rwanda. How many? Dunno. When? Soon. At what cost? Don’t worry about it. A policy so laughable, so doomed to fail, that Mr Sunak called the election before it started to operate. That way he could still try to fool someone, anyone, into thinking it would work.

And there was his chief attack line throughout the interminable election campaign: that Labour would jack up people’s taxes. Very scary. Of course, the Tories were also going to raise taxes, to their highest level since the 1940s.

Launching a scare campaign telling voters their taxes will go up under your opponent, when they’re already going up under you! The cheek.

Of course, it didn’t particularly matter what Mr Sunak said during the campaign; the public largely stopped listening to him long ago. That’s what happens when everything you do oozes contempt.

Rishi Sunak. Picture: Dan Kitwood/AFP

Someone on the other side of the Atlantic needs to pay attention, because the Democratic Party is in the process of making the same mistake, and heading for the same humiliating result.

Joe Biden’s halting performance during last week’s debate against Donald Trump was irrevocable. It can’t be unseen, it can’t be fixed. Americans were already worried about Mr Biden’s age, and instead of alleviating their fears, he cemented them.

Privately, Democrats are panicking. Publicly, against all the evidence, they insist Mr Biden is fine. They’re asking voters to quite literally disregard what they witnessed with their own eyes and ears. It’s no less preposterous or disrespectful than anything Mr Johnson, Ms Truss or Mr Sunak pulled in Britain.

Mr Biden and his staff have bristled at questions about his mental acuity for years. Now that the truth about his condition is undeniable, are they offering an apology? Humility? Goodness no. In fact they’re still tetchy that the issue is even being raised.

“I’m not going anywhere,” the President told reporters overnight.

Then, asked in a radio interview what he would say to people who were considering staying home and not voting at all, he said: “Same thing that was said to me when I was a young kid getting out of school during the Civil Rights movement. If you don’t do something about it, you’re to blame. You’re responsible.”

You’re responsible! Says the one person who actually is responsible.

Joe Biden during the debate. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

More than three-quarters of Americans now think Mr Biden is too old to be president, and the ageing process only goes one way. To foist him on the public again reeks of arrogance.

OK. You can overcome being seen as arrogant in politics. But to also gaslight voters, to lie so blatantly, to demand they delude themselves – that is so much worse.

In Britain, the Conservative government presided over a cost of living crisis, a deteriorating health system, and a parade of scandals. And then Rishi Sunak popped up on everyone’s TV screens with the sunny demeanour of an overgrown school prefect, without a single financial worry in the world, to insist “the plan is working”.

You can’t change reality without first acknowledging it. After hearing so much that sounded closer to absurdity than the truth, from a succession of Conservative leaders, the voters had no interest in hearing any more.

Originally published as Britain’s Conservatives doomed themselves by insulting their constituents’ intelligence. Across the Atlantic, Joe Biden is making the same mistake