Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber

by Andy Borowitz

With her toxic brew of ignorance and grievance, Sarah Palin was the gateway ignoramus who led to Donald Trump.

A century and a half before Trump trained his xenophobia on Mexicans, the Know-Nothings had vilified Germans, Irish, and Catholics. They also undermined the validity of elections, suppressed voting, and started riots. Trump’s ideology wasn’t just toxic—it was derivative.

Actually, the minute you get into an argument online, the other side automatically wins, because you’re expending energy that could have been applied to political activities that are productive and not just symbolic.

We think we’re participating in politics, but we’re often just spectators, following it the way we follow sports.