There is a temptation in moments like this to imagine that the people driving so much of today’s damage are towering figures, brilliant strategists, fearsome intellects, or uniquely powerful villains. History often encourages that illusion. But one of the most unsettling truths of this era is how small, how fundamentally unimpressive, so many of its architects actually are.
What may linger longest in memory is not just the scale of the harm being done, but the mediocrity of the people doing it.
What to Know…
The most disturbing feature of the current political era is not the brilliance of its villains, but the ordinariness and mediocrity of the people empowered to do widespread harm.
Systems that reward loyalty, cruelty, and obedience over competence allow unremarkable figures to gain outsized influence.
Much of today’s political damage stems from the collapse of merit and standards, not from inevitable or extraordinary historical forces.
Names like Karoline Leavitt, Stephen Miller, and Pete Hegseth are not supposed to be historically significant. In any system governed by genuine merit, competence, or intellectual rigor, these figures would never have occupied the positions they now hold or influence. They would not have shaped national narratives, written policy, or commanded media attention. They would have lived ordinary, forgettable lives, known only to family and a small circle of acquaintances.
And that is precisely what makes this moment so disturbing.
Their rise is not a testament to exceptional ability, vision, or leadership. It is a reflection of a system that rewards loyalty over competence, cruelty over insight, and volume over substance. In this ecosystem, mediocrity is not a liability; it is an asset. Being unremarkable makes it easier to follow orders without hesitation, to repeat talking points without reflection, and to enforce policies without moral friction.
The damage, then, does not come from brilliance wielded irresponsibly. It comes from small minds given oversized megaphones, from people whose greatest skill is not thinking but obeying, not understanding but amplifying. These are not figures who reshape the world through depth of thought; they do so through proximity to power and a willingness to debase themselves in service of it.
There is something uniquely galling about this. Societies can at least grapple with the idea of being outmaneuvered by genius or overwhelmed by historical forces larger than any individual. It is far harder to accept that so much suffering has been enabled by people who are, at their core, painfully ordinary.
This is the true indictment of the MAGA moment. Not merely that harmful ideas have taken root, but that the bar for influence has sunk so low. That empty ambition, lack of curiosity, and moral hollowness can masquerade as leadership. That mediocrity, when aligned with power, can become catastrophic.
Long after policies are reversed and names fade from headlines, this may be what defines the era is the realization that the damage was never inevitable, never the work of towering figures or dark geniuses, but the consequence of elevating small, unimpressive people into roles they never should have occupied in the first place.