Perhaps in a completely information-controlled dictatorship (which is hardly possible in the online era, though maybe North Korea comes closest) the “politicians” are to blame if the populace makes the wrong electoral “choice.” But in most of the world, despite the polarized media, it is still possible to make informed choices, if the populace makes the effort.
Yet in the case of Clinton vs. Trump this is not even the problem. One just has to hear Trump (1-2 times) to see that he is a brainless, heartless, cheap, vulgar, self-aggrandizing, lying tycoon. That all non-psychopathic american voters don’t immediately and totally reject him with revulsion is not only an extremely sad — indeed tragic — fact about far too large a proportion of the US electorate, but it is open and shut evidence about who is to blame if he is elected: Trump certainly couldn’t have done it without them.
In Hungary today, with its own Turul Trump, the situation is somewhat different — because the press is highly controlled, the electoral ridings are gerrymandered and rampant conferral of extra-territorial citizenship has stacked the cards, the constitution has been gutted and guttered, checks and balances are nearly gone, mafia-style corruption pervades the regime and its supporters, and the pervasive, systemic corruption together with a partly perverted police and judicial system have intimidated the citizenry — the situation is not the same as in the USA. But the electorate is still to blame for the fact that they keep voting in Orban. The handwriting was already on the wall in 2008, well before the electoral gerrymandering, media control and constitution-busting, with the majority’s readiness to jump aboard Orban’s shameless and completely (completely) groundless FUD campaign of slander against Gyurcsany.
The Hungarians bought that, then, despite its transparent meanness and mendacity, just as Trump supporters are doing now. And they got what they deserved for their unthinking (and unadmirable) somnambulism.
Of course the populace (whether they choose to vote or not) is to blame for their electoral outcome: Who else?
