There must be something about politics that makes people stupid, or at the very least, makes them able to suspend reality in a way that doesn't make sense to the rest of us who are not rabid party loyalists.

The typical party fanatic believes their party can do no wrong. They will never admit to it. They will be standing in the middle of a burning building and their party leader tells them the building is not burning and they will stand there and have the building burn to the ground and then say the building is not burning.

It's incredible. Last week was the chick-V, this past weekend it was something Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said to the thousands of loyalists at the National Arena and the tens of thousands more listening on radio and watching on television. As she ramped up her supporters the prime minister quite accurately said people are doing less with more. There is nothing to misinterpret. People are using more money to buy fewer things.

sliding dollar

This is as a consequence of the dollar sliding from about 86 to 1 when the PNP assumed power in 2011, to about 113 to 1 now. What that has meant for most Jamaicans is that it costs more money to buy the same basic food items at the supermarket. It also means it costs more money to buy fewer litres of gasolene for your car. Your JPS bill is a lot higher for the same amount of consumption each month. It is about to get a lot higher as the utility company has just been granted a significant rate increase by the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR). The increase means you will pay more to use even less electricity.

Bearing all that in mind; how was what the prime minister said, a slip of the tongue or a mistake? It is in fact, true, and perhaps, the greatest truth of all that she said on Sunday. But if you follow what their supporters are saying, it is the rest of us who got it wrong. We are the ones who don't understand what the prime minister said. They would even have us believe that it is the converse that is true; we are doing more with less.

The way that even comes close to the truth is if we are spending English Pounds or US dollars. And then, in absolute terms it is not because anything that costs one US dollar abroad costs US$2 to US$2.50 here.

logic does not apply

The only way I can explain the party faithful's take on things is that they live in a world where reality has been indefinitely suspended. In their world, logic does not apply.

In many ways, it also explains the behaviour of a few at the National Arena on Sunday, who sat even while the national anthem was being played yet stood with fists raised when the party song blared from the loudspeakers. These are the persons who have put party before country, and that is why in some ways they behave the way they do when it comes to what they will do for their party but not for their country.

And just so you know, this is not a political statement aimed at the PNP. Because you know there will be some loyalist comrade who thinks that this is a dig against their party and their leader. This is a statement I believe to be true of both parties.

This kind of behaviour is what turns people like me off the political system because for some people, it's never about what makes actual sense; just what makes sense for the party.

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