The most basic political mistake

Is to think politics matters as much as most people think it does. People right now are telling us Trump created the America everyone is suffering through or that Boris' lockdown policy is the reason why we have the worst death rate in Europe.

They are factors, likely to be strong contributing factors.

But culture and policy and politics are separate. And culture comes first. An America incapable of getting into this situation would never have elected Donald Trump. A Britain that took the virus as seriously as it ought to have done would never have gotten as bad a death rate at this.

We blame politics for things that already exist in ourselves and our society. Until we start to see that it's more complicated, that culture and politics cause each other and feed off each other, we will never get anywhere.

Did you know that the number of handgun crimes in the UK went *up* significantly after Tony Blair's handgun ban? Or what about the fact that other countries with America's lax gun laws have *nothing like* the rate of gun crime?

Similarly, for COVID, Sweden's death rate is not so much higher than other countries, nor its economy performing *that* differently* to suggest that policy and policy alone is what makes the difference. Trump is a huge part of the problem in America. But racial inequality, police brutality and rioting are not new problems for that country. His rhetoric is one of the appalling issues, not the appalling issue.

Unhistoric acts are crucial. How much do we all enable the police to be the way they are? How much do we tolerate in our culture that we shouldn't?

Worry less about today's news, today's press conference, worry about the culture and the underlying thinking and assumptions that enabled it. You are part of that, irrespective of how you voted.