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There's a political puzzle that has worried me for a while, and is highlighted by some of the responses to today's column. What some of the pushback against @SenWarren comes down to is "I feel like she's talking down to me" 1/ nytimes.com/2019/01/07/opi…
The reason this is puzzling is that she really isn't. She does try to explain issues, but there isn't any condescension I can find -- and nothing like the sneering contempt for his supporters that shines through everything Trump does and says 2/
Yet this is a real thing, not to be wished away. And I don't think it's just sexism -- in general, politicians who try to understand issues get grief from a segment of voters who seem perfectly happy with politicians who clearly consider them chumps 3/
Maybe there's something in the political science literature that explains it? My casual thought is that it's a kind of affinity fraud: anti-intellectual voters feel comfortable with anti-intellectual pols, even when they're obvious con men 4/
But I don't actually know if that's it, or how to combat the phenomenon. And I guess by using a four-syllable word I've just shown that I'm part of the problem ... 5/
