The Blame Game Behind the Ballot: What the 2024 Election Really Teaches Us

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In the shadow of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the political world found itself deep inside what Christopher Hood once famously called “blameworld.” For those unfamiliar with his language, blameworld is not merely a poetic metaphor—it’s a structured system in which political survival often hinges less on delivering results and more on avoiding accountability.

“Welcome to ‘blameworld’ and the blame game.”
— The Blame Game, p. 4

This election was not just a contest of candidates. It was a theater of deflection, a masterclass in spin, and a stark reminder that public office is as much about escaping blame as it is about wielding power. Hood’s first chapter provides the conceptual lens. The headlines, like the New York Times’s “How Trump Won, and How Harris Lost” (Goldmacher, Haberman & Swan, Nov. 7, 2024), give us the raw material. Together, they reveal a deeper drama—where officeholders and their teams dodge, shift, or weaponize blame to outlast the next crisis.

Let’s follow the storyline.