A lot of those voters will check Cherfilus-McCormick’s name on the ballot just because she is black, or is a woman, or is a Democrat, because their comprehension of their civic responsibility goes no deeper than tribal loyalty. Or, in the alternative, they will blindly vote for this grifter because they will never bother to find out why she resigned her seat.

Our culture, through our incompetent schools, corrosive popular culture and irresponsible journalism, imbues U.S. citizens with a near-fatal level of ethical ignorance and civic apathy. For others, Cherfilus-McCormick’s predictable claim that she was framed by her political enemies ( as well as racists and sexists) will resonate, because, in fact, they have seen too many examples where that has actually happened, most notably in the lawfare used to take Donald Trump out of the 2024 election. And Hillary Clinton, a leader of Cherfilus-McCormick’s party, told the country in 1998 that her husband’s Monica Lewinsky scandal was the work of a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” even as she knew that was a lie.

The fact that Cherfilus-McCormick could even think she could run for the same office again is a frightening symptom of a sick society struggling to show it is still worthy of a republic. She isn’t the only example either: Mark Sanford, the former Republican South Carolina governor and congressman, is running for his old House seat this fall. Remember him? He’s the wacko who went AWOL as governor in 2009 while his aides falsely told reporters that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. He was really in Argentina, having a romantic affair with a woman he later described his “soul mate.” Let’s see: unstable, irresponsible, untrustworthy, dishonest, an unapologetic adulterer who abandoned an elected position of public service for his own gratification—Hell yes, what’s there not to like?

This isn’t just a rotten political class crisis. It is a civic apathy crisis.