Why Groutpthink is Killing DC.

DC Crime is out of control and many people are furious with the Mayor, a few Council members, and the AG.

And they should. These people made bad decisions and DC residents are paying the price.

However, they were in a situation where bad decisions are almost guaranteed. 

People are naturally optimistic about their plans and judge based on ideal conditions, not actual past results. People rarely examine the details until forced to by argument or outside control.

Humanity evolved adversarial truth-seeking to overcome the many biases individuals have.

As long as people are in the same political party, they have to avoid too much arguing or face expulsion. It is also often the case that national parties adhere to ideas that they rely on the opposition Parties to challenge without any real plan to act on those ideas. When any one party becomes too dominant, the politicians stop hearing the full range of objections to their plans.

We saw that with the 2022 Crime Bill.

Many voices raised concerns but, even  with people like Mayor Bowser, no serious effort to block it was made. Since then, there has been massive regret and reform with the Secure DC Act of 2024. Even Charles Allen voted for it.

There is some huge aversion to openly disagreeing and voting differently in DC government when the most stalwart pro-crime politician votes in favor of an act overturning his old acts. Quiet disagreement does not inform the public, it does not get ideas tested enough, and does not result in clear choices for the voters.

Crime is a result of the DC culture of hiding disagreement and the problem will return until people can actually argue and vote without fear of being expelled from the in-crowd of DC politics.