That folksy wisdom of applying common sence and do what's right doesn't work when it's about faith of a millions. If I hire shitty builder because he was too convincing, and then chose wrong option because I am indeed not an architect, worst case scenario my house will be a bit fucked. If a politician makes the same mistakes, millions of people will die. So for a regular shmo this skill has small consequences and doesn't have to be this strong.
You're saying "listen to professionals" as if there is always one professional with one opinion and your options is to listen to him or not, but it's almost never the case in complex questions.

[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I'll say it again...

An expert/professional in one field does not have special knowledge that makes them better at making decisions in another. It just doesn't. And finding the wrong experts is a miss that a professional could JUST as easily make.

And I'm sorry, for the VAST majority of elected offices, the stakes just are not that high. No city council member in a city of a few hundred thousand is making decisions that affect the fate of millions. But it's EXTREMELY easy for someone with greater ambition than that city council to sell out the constituents of that city in exchange for aid to get to a higher office, and it happens ALL THE TIME.

I'll say it again... a reasonable, competent individual with low ambition and good decision making is, all else being equal, a better choice.