To say Kevin McCarthy is as dumb as a box of rocks is not only an insult to rocks, but also to boxes.

But Are We Dumber?

Kevin McCarthy has the look of someone my mother used to describe as “struggling to retain a thought.”

If you listen to the man talk you’ll see, as the great Dana Milbank wrote,

McCarthy has a knack for garbled messages. If he does succeed in his speakership quest (which is likely, if only for the lack of an alternative), he will earn the distinction of being the first speaker in U.S. history not to speak fluent English.

(Dana Milbank is a delicious writer, in the tradition of Russell Baker, Molly Ivins, and Jimmy Breslin. In this column, he reprints authentic McCarthy gibberish with the advice “Do not even attempt to diagram that sentence.”)

But I watched Kevin McCarthy say a very stupid thing to reporters quite clearly as he got closer to being elected Speaker:

“This is the great part. Because it took this long, now we learned how to govern.”

Really? That’s your best answer Kevin?

So if you hadn’t put everyone through those 15 levels of hell I mean ballots you wouldn’t have known how to govern? Is that what you’re saying?

Rocks, box—meet Kevin.

Speaker McCarthy, Dan Quayle wants his deer in the headlights look back. Which is to say that we’ve survived low intellectual capacity in high places before. (OK, the jury may still be out on that one, thanks to Donald Trump). But Kevin McCarthy is taking us to dangerous new lows.

You may ask yourself, well, how did we get here?

As Dan Pfeiffer writes in

The Message Box

You may be asking, if Kevin McCarthy is so dumb, how did he become the Republican Leader? I will answer your question with another question. How did Donald Trump take over the Republican Party?The GOP is an institution that demeans intellectualism and reveres ignorance. Failing up is the only way.

But stupid wouldn’t be winning so much if stupid wasn’t so popular. The sad truth is that voters aren’t too disappointed in politicians because they never expected much better from them in the first place.

The dwindling number of people who are paying attention to politics increasingly see it as another form of entertainment, like the WWE, or talk radio. Different clowns, same circus.

But this set of clowns is in charge of making laws that effect all of us. The more we tune them out, the easier it is for them to vote against our interests.

It’s easy to laugh at Kevin McCarthy, and late night hosts will be doing so for as many hours, days or weeks McCarthy remains Speaker. (As I wrote here, along with predicting what’s next for George Santos, my money’s on Marjorie Taylor Greene).

As I’ve written previously—in this space and also in this op-ed—the idea of having political heroes, or believing that politics can make a difference is currently considered laughable. But I’m not laughing.

I’m listening to Hakeem Jeffries, who delivered an inspiring speech after McCarthy’s election and whose voice for democracy, justice and opportunity is as clear as a bell.

I’m listening to Maxwell Frost, the first GenZ member of Congress and a survivor of gun violence who is bringing a new generation of voters to politics.

I’m listening to Summer Lee, who is the first Black woman to serve in Congress from Pennsylvania. As she said upon taking office: “It will not take centuries longer for the next.”

But first, we have to care about politics enough to take it seriously. Despite dimwits like Kevin McCarthy.