When They Try

I watched a video of an AfD politician trying to submit amendments in the Saxon parliament. He completely fell apart—couldn’t manage the procedure, kept stumbling, got completely stuck. It was painful to watch.

What got me was how straightforward the task looked. Submit amendments. Follow the rules. But he couldn’t do it. And watching someone fail at something that basic, something that should be within reach, says something about them. You can talk a big game about changing everything, but if you don’t know how things actually work, what good is that?

There was dark comedy in it. This person who wants to tear the whole thing down can’t even navigate what’s actually there. It’s like listening to someone confidently describe how they’re going to rebuild a machine they’ve never opened up.

I don’t know what to make of it. Either he’s genuinely incompetent, or the actual machinery of government matters less to him than the rhetoric. Both possibilities are bleak.