Comedian and satirist Andy Borowitz was born in Shaker Heights in 1958. A graduate of Shaker Heights High School, he went on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard.
His writing skills and wit during his college years earned him the presidency of the Harvard Lampoon, which led to a stint in Hollywood where he was a script writer and producer, writing for such shows as The Facts of Life. He was the co-creator and writer of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the award-winning TV sitcom starring Will Smith that ran from 1990 to 1996. It won Borowitz a NAACP Image Award.
A prolific author of political satire, his 2009 book was entitled Who Moved My Soap? The CEO’s Guide to Surviving Prison — dedicated to Bernie Madoff. His most recent book is entitled Profiles in Ignorance — How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber (Avid Reader Press, 2022).
The theme of the book is summed up on the opening page by two quotes — the first from President Harry Truman. “Being dumb is just about the worst thing there is when it comes to holding office.” The second is from President Donald Trump. “The worst thing a man can do is go bald.” Borowitz spends the rest of the book elaborating on these gems of wisdom with biting sarcasm and wit, quoting actual politicians and elected officials, that literally had me laughing out loud.
In roughly 250 pages he chronicles the decline of the level of mental capability of American politicians by retracing the steps of the mindless politicians who turn ignorance into a virtue which allows today’s politicians to wear their dunce caps with pride.
Borowitz starts his diatribe on stupidity by describing the 1972 incident when Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk managed to set his hair on fire while cutting a titanium ribbon with a welding torch. The incident enhanced the city’s reputation for flammability: three years earlier, our polluted Cuyahoga River had spontaneously combusted.
Staying in Ohio, Borowitz reflects on Warren G. Harding, our 29th president and the last Ohioan to occupy the White House. Never known as a mental giant, he was described by columnist H. L. Mencken as follows: “No other such complete and dreadful nitwit is to be found in the pages of American History.” The problem is Mencken failed to anticipate future presidents and should have added the phrase “. . . so far” to his description.
Borowitz’s theory of the decline in intelligence in American politicians is based on three stages. The first stage, which he calls ridicule, is a period where dumb politicians pretended to be smart. Ignorance was a serious flaw that could kill a political career. “Not so long ago, it was less than ideal for an American Politician to seem like a dumbass.”
This was followed by a period of acceptance, where ignorance mutated into something more agreeable: a sign that a politician was authentic, down-to-earth and normal, like former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dan Quayle and vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin — you know, like the kind of person you would like to have a beer with. Not like two-time Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson who, often described as an egghead, was rejected by the voters in favor of the more down-to-earth, golf-playing General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The final and current stage is that of celebration, which we are currently enduring. Ignorance has become preferable to knowledge and dunces are exalted over experts. Take Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene who won seat in Congress after she advanced the theory that California wildfires were caused by lasers, fired from outer space, at the behest of the Jewish banking family the Rothschilds. Or former football coach and now Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who steadfastly believes that “There is one person that changes climate in this country and that is God.”
Borowitz points the finger at Ronald Reagan for the dumbing down of American politics. He spends a lot of ink on The Gipper as he argues that Reagan opened the floodgates by transforming himself from a grade B actor to TV personality to politician, thereby opening the door for the star of The Apprentice to go to the White House.
This is not the book to put under the Christmas tree for your die-hard Republican uncle who voted for Donald Trump and wears a MAGA hat. It may put him in cardiac arrest and will surely cause you to be cut from his will.
For political junkies like me, Profiles in Ignorance is a treasure trove of quotes by elected officials and would-be elected officials who not only enjoy the taste of shoe leather but demonstrate that they either slept through high school civics and American history, or don’t care enough to even learn the basic facts that any person taking the examination to become an American citizen must learn. It further demonstrates that stupidity is bipartisan, although most of the jabs are focused on Republicans.
It would clearly be wrong to require an intelligence test to run for office. If educational requirements were in effect, Abraham Lincoln would never have been elected. While Lincoln, who had about a year of formal education, is often listed as America’s greatest president, Woodrow Wilson, the only president with a PhD, is ranked much closer to the bottom.
This year primary voters selected TV doc and New Jersey resident Mehmet Oz for a shot at a Pennsylvania Senate seat and football has-been and Texas resident Herschel Walker to go to the Senate from Georgia. Fortunately, they were both defeated.
But consider 2016. A thrice-married, never-elected-to-anything, formerly bankrupt reality TV personality defeated a candidate who had textbook credentials for the Presidency — law degree from Yale, former senator, former secretary of state and former first lady — probably one of the best qualified presidential candidates ever. Which I guess proves Borowitz’s point.
Take the time to read this comic but also tragic account of American political life. It will make you laugh but in retrospect it will make you fearful of the fate of our Democracy if future candidates fit the current mold.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
3 Responses to “Profiles in Ignorance: The Dumbing Down of American Politics by C. Ellen Connally”
Peter Lawson Jones
I will make sure that my family buys this for either my birthday (December 23rd) or Christmas. I was just remarking earlier today on how I pray that the defeat of both Mehmet Oz and Herschel Walker will mark the end of “celebrity” candidates for public office and all others who are known for being known as opposed to being knowledgeable. (Darn, that’s a pretty fair turn of a phrase there, if I say so myself. LOL!)
Mel Maurer
Great review. All true and so sad while being funny. We need to bring back common sense
Hari Prahlad
This is, without doubt, one of the finest books that I’ve ever read. The book will be placed next to Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 on my bookshelf.