At social gatherings, when I’m asked what I do for a living and I explain, the response is often: “Americans are really stupid.” I usually suggest that things are a little more complicated than that, before steering the conversation to how India are faring in the latest Test match.

The narrative that Americans are “stupid”, “ignorant” or “illiterate” for electing Donald Trump not once but twice is widespread. It aligns with claims that Trump himself is either stupid, crazy or both. This framing is damaging and divisive, entrenching voters in opposing camps while failing to address the deeper, structural problems of American politics in this era.

The “Americans are stupid” mantra is a lazy trope peddled and amplified by elites who prefer to scapegoat the public rather than confront the deeper rot in the US political system. This perspective, often fog-horned and legitimised by corporate media and establishment pundits, dismisses the rational agency of millions of voters and ignores the structural forces that shape election results.

Far from being dupes, many Americans who supported Trump – or rejected his opponents – demonstrate a profound scepticism of a political culture dominated by big money and corporate-media misrepresentation. This scepticism, while sometimes misdirected, reflects a rational response to a system rigged against them.

The corporate propaganda machine

The US political landscape is neither a neutral arena nor a free market of ideas but a carefully curated battlefield dominated by corporate interests.

The “Big 3” foundations – Rockefeller, Ford and Carnegie – along with think tanks like Brookings, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Heritage Foundation, have long shaped the contours of American political discourse. These institutions, backed by vast corporate wealth, promote policies that align with elite interests, from deregulation to military adventurism, while marginalising dissenting and radical voices.

The media, too, plays a pivotal role in this information warfare system. Outlets owned by a handful of conglomerates amplify narratives that serve their bottom line, whether it's fearmongering about foreign threats or lionising Wall Street’s excesses.

During the 2016 and 2024 elections, this corporate machinery was in overdrive. Mainstream media outlets, from CNN to the New York Times, gave Trump billions in free airtime, not because they endorsed him but because his bombast drove ratings.

Meanwhile, the Democratic party establishment, tethered to corporate, billionaire and Wall Street donors, pushed candidates who embodied the status quo – Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 – while sidelining populist challengers like Bernie Sanders, whose 13 million primary votes in 2016 signalled a hunger for radical change.

The system’s bias is clear: it elevates candidates who pose no threat to corporate power, even if their rhetoric, like Trump’s, appears rebellious.

This isn’t just about media spin; it’s about structural control. Campaign finance laws allow billionaires and corporations to flood elections with ‘dark money’, ensuring that only candidates who play ball with the elite can compete.

In 2020, a mere 100 wealthy donors – many tied to corporate interests – accounted for nearly 20% of all campaign contributions.

This isn’t democracy; it’s an auction. Voters aren’t “stupid” for navigating this rigged game in whatever way they believe best; they’re surviving it.

The myth of the ignorant voter

The charge that Americans are too “illiterate” or “low-information” to make rational electoral choices ignores the context in which those choices are made.

Polls, like one from Pew Research in 2015, show that trust in government has plummeted to historic lows, with only 19% of Americans believing the government does the right thing most of the time.

This distrust isn’t born of ignorance but of experience. Decades of wage stagnation, deindustrialisation and endless wars – policies championed by both parties – have left millions feeling betrayed.

Robert Reich, during a 2015 book tour through the “flyover states”, found even hardcore Republican voters enraged at the political establishment and its corporate backers. This anger fuelled Trump’s rise, not because voters were duped, but because they saw him as a massive rebuke to a system that had failed them.

Trump’s appeal lies in his ability to exploit this disillusionment. Racialised messaging has been a significant factor in driving support for Trump, particularly among certain voter demographics. The impact of this messaging is tied to how it resonates with cultural anxieties, economic insecurities and racial resentments, especially among white working-class voters.

But that is only the mass electoral base of Trumpism: the other end is rooted in the corporate economy.

Trump’s “drain the swamp” rhetoric, however hollow, resonates with those who see Washington as a cesspool of corporate cronyism. Yet, the same voters who backed Trump often remain sceptical of his brand of “Trumpism”. Polls from Gallup in 2020 showed that even among his supporters, only 46% approved of his performance, with many viewing him as a lesser evil rather than a saviour.

This scepticism extends to the Democrats, whose ties to Wall Street and Silicon Valley are no secret. The Democratic National Committee’s sabotage of Sanders’s 2016 campaign, exposed by WikiLeaks, only deepened public cynicism. Americans aren’t blind; they see the corruption on both sides.

Scepticism as resistance

Far from being “stupid”, American voters display a remarkable scepticism that cuts through corporate propaganda, made evident by the rejection of establishment candidates across the spectrum.

In 2016, Trump and Sanders together garnered more primary votes than Clinton, signalling a revolt against the status quo. In 2024, Trump’s re-election wasn’t a blanket endorsement of his policies but a repudiation of a Democratic Party perceived as equally beholden to big money. Voters aren’t illiterate; they’re fed up. They know the game is rigged, even if they don’t always articulate it in sophisticated or scholarly terms.

This scepticism, however, is a double-edged sword. While it fuels resistance, it can also be manipulated. Trump’s genius lies in channelling legitimate grievances into a patrimonial strongman style and heavily racialised politics, where loyalty to the Fuehrer-like national leader overshadows policy substance. His baseless claims of a “stolen” 2020 election, believed by 70% of Republican voters, thrive on this distrust, creating a feedback loop of disinformation.

Yet, even here, voters aren’t simply gullible. They’re grasping for alternatives in a system that offers few.

A path forward? Optimism of the will

Blaming voters for Trump’s victories is not just wrong; it’s dangerously counterproductive. It absolves the corporate system that shapes electoral outcomes and dismisses the public’s legitimate grievances.

Instead of condescension, we need a reckoning with the structural forces – corporate money, media-ownership concentration and elite think tanks – that suffocate democracy.

Americans aren’t stupid; they’re sceptical. The challenge is to harness that scepticism into a movement that dismantles the corporate stranglehold on politics, whether it’s through campaign finance reform, breaking up media monopolies or amplifying voices that challenge the status quo.

The 2016 and 2024 elections weren’t triumphs of ignorance but cries of defiance against a corrupt system.

Calling voters “stupid” is designed to mislead and divert attention, to miss the point: voters aren’t the problem; the system is.

Inderjeet Parmar is a professor of international politics and associate dean of research in the School of Policy and Global Affairs at City St George’s, University of London, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a columnist at The Wire. He is an International Fellow at the ROADS Initiative think tank, Islamabad, and author of several books including Foundations of the American Century. He is currently writing a book on the history, politics and crises of the US foreign policy establishment.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.