Why Do We Defer to the Political Class? Automatic deference is contrary to human nature

Image: Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other House Democrats

Theory: Deference is a tactic that has been fully exploited by the political class for over 100 years to our collective detriment. Let’s examine that postulation in detail.

WHAT DOES DEFERENCE MEAN?

Here’s the dictionary definition:

deference [def-er-uh ns]

noun: respectful submission or yielding to the judgment, opinion, will, etc., of another.

Deference is typically shown to older – and/or believed to be more experienced – people in various matters. As examples, we defer to the clergy in matters of religion, doctors in matters of medicine, and judges in matters of the law (the honest ones, anyway). Deference is also shown to people with credentials, too.

What do I mean by that? There is a societal belief that people with the “right” credentials should be deferred to in matters associated with those credentials. The more credentials one “earns,” the more deference shown. These people are frequently called “experts,” and we have been conditioned over the years to defer to experts in virtually every facet of life thanks to a political class that is only interested in controlling us.

There are all kinds of credentials: those earned by learned/demonstrated skills, those awarded by authoritative boards and committees, those achieved by passing tests, etc. Credentials are frequently used to preclude laymen from filling positions – a form of gatekeeper control. Gotta have this degree or that degree; must have so many years of direct experience; must be highly recommended by other experts in the field. Etc. Check the right blocks, and deference from the “rubes” becomes a magic weapon.

But do credentials actually mean anything? Should we defer to people simply because they’ve got a piece of paper? Trust but verify works in the realm of validating credentials and experts in everyday life, too. We look at the track records and recommendations/ratings first, don’t we? Who would willingly go to a known pedophile priest, a quack doctor, or a corrupt judge and blindly adhere to their advice without first checking them out? Let’s go one step further and look at the political class.

CREDENTIALISM AS EXPLOITED BY THE POLITICAL CLASS

The political class has developed a sort of credentialism that accrues to politicians at different levels of government to the point that people elected to federal or certain state offices are considered “experts” in government operations and, seemingly, in virtually every topic and issue brought forth for consideration. This is often the case regardless of whether there is any direct past expertise in those matters or not. Politicians blithely tell us to “trust them” because they are “experts” in how government operates – and a whole host of other myths intended to convince us to essentially let them run wild and free. As a class, they have been pretty successful in that regard, as the national debt now exceeds $38 trillion!

But let’s look at the facts: how many of the members of Congress have ANYexpertise in any of the important matters under consideration these days? Who among them know anything about medical care (except for a very few who were formerly practicing physicians)? Or national security affairs, foreign policy, military requirements, “infrastructure,” the financial services industry, physical science as applied to environmental policy, existing immigration laws, border security, international trade, or even the US Constitution and Bill of Rights? Why on earth should we continually defer to lunatics like San Fran Nan, Shifty Schiff, Danang Dick Blumenthal, Ho Harris, Spartacus Booker, Mad Maxine Waters, and others on ANY policy or piece of legislation that significantly impacts Americans? Should we trust them on jab mandates or wearing masks or making diversity hires for the betterment of America? It’s absurd!

Possibly even worse than the politicians are the Hollywood actors and actresses who are frequently trotted out by Democrats to convey their “vast knowledge” on left-wing subjects before Democrat-run committees in Congress. The only thing these people are “expert” at is in pretending to be other people (and some of them aren’t so good at doing that, either). And we’re supposed to be swayed by what they say on, say, getting the jab or the efficacy of natural therapies like Ivermectin, fenbendazole, and hydroxychloroquine? Their opinions are about as useful as those of homeless street people!

MORE ON DEFERENCE

Back to the subject of deference. For years, I had this print of a picture by the great American painter Norman Rockwell on my office wall for many years as a daily reminder to not be afraid to speak the truth in public.

This is the painting of a working man speaking truth to power and making his views known in a public meeting of some kind. It’s a direct example of what we as Americans should be doing on a regular basis, especially these days when so much corruption and criminality have been exposed! If anything, it properly reflects the deference of public servants toward average citizens, not the other way around. The political class and we need to be constantly reminded that they are to listen to and then serve us, not themselves!

Pompous windbags like AOC and Jasmine Crockett berate President Trump for actions taken as promised to close the porous southern border, stop the flow of illegal drugs into the country that have killed more Americans than died in World War II, and a whole host of other actions he has taken for the betterment of the American people. Worse yet are their claims that President Trump is lining his pockets while serving as our president (while he takes no salary). I would love to see their assets audited from top to bottom, especially their sources of income since election to Congress!

How about liar Adam Schiff in his innumerable legacy media appearances over the past 6+ years in which he claimed to have the evidence necessary to “impeach the president” – which he couldn’t produce after the Mueller report was released? And then there’s his parody of an opening statement of the House Intelligence Committee in 2022 about the President’s supposed extortion of Ukraine. It was a complete lie, as the telephone transcript summary of the two presidents’ phone call subsequently proved. Do we “defer” to him because he’s an “expert” in government affairs? The only thing he is an expert at is the telling of lies.

Should we show deference to Hillary Clinton who continuously called for President Trump’s impeachment while screeching about his supposed “authoritarianism” without providing a shred of evidence? The legacy media have been deferring to her for years, never challenging her about any of her egregious lies or her corruption. Refer to this update just last month containing new information about Clinton Foundation corruption.

How about Fauxcahontas? Should we defer to her various pontifications about President Trump’s authoritarianism? Elizabeth Warren called the first six weeks of the new administration a “sandstorm of chaos” meant to distract from President Trump’s goal of jamming through trillions in tax cuts to billionaires at the expense of health care, Social Security, and programs that benefit working people. Except that we now know that his actions and results were the exact opposite of what she claimed. How do those Trump accounts benefit billionaires, again? The woman lied about her heritage to secure positions throughout her career. The legacy media have let her slide out of “deference,” too.

The list goes on and on. And the list of so-called experts called by past Democrat congresses to push terrible policies is also legion. Remember how all their experts pushed Obamacare in 2009? How did that work out 15+ years later?

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

The political class think that they can say and do literally ANYTHING and get away with it and not be held accountable! They would do well to remember that there is no “royalty” in America, and the Founders and others fought a revolution to get out from under a tyrannical government. The political class demand deference from us yet fail miserably in their service obligations while taking advantage of perks that they give to themselves.

We should treat them just as we do credentialed people and so-called experts with whom we come in contact in our daily lives. Trust but verify – because that is human nature. Trust is earned, not given out of misguided deference.

Confront them directly when they lie. Be courteous, but don’t be afraid to express your own opinion, particularly if it’s factual and contrary to what they bleat. Treat them with disdain when warranted. Inform others about their bad behavior, as appropriate. Press other Republicans to confront the lies of the communist Democrats and their lick-spittle media just has President Trump has shown the way over the last decade.

The political class need to earn our deference and respect – and that’s an EXTREMELY hard sell given what DOGE and independent media have uncovered in 2025.

The end.

This article originally appeared in Stu Cvrk’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission

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