"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Friday 11 September 2015

A CAMPAIGN IS A PERFORMANCE....SOME DO IT BETTER

In the election of 2010 , students at St. Maximillian Kolbe High School conducted an exercise.
Students were assigned a candidate to manage. I received calls from a studen. She became increasingly perplexed. 

The request was reasonable. She needed to know my platform. What did I intend to do for people 
to gain their support? 

I explained a Council member couldn't accomplish anything without the support of a majority. 
The job was mostly about oversight and making sure the best services were provided at the least expense. People don't object to paying taxes as long as they know the money is being spent wisely.

I talked about my priorities if I was elected. 

The student really wanted to win. As anybody does. It's exciting but it does become more stressful 
as the moment approaches. 

A statement of priorities didn't do it for her. Long experience and  a good reputation did not stir her enthusiasm. She wanted  to be able to offer more and different and better than other candidates. 

I hoped  it was O.K. But she knew her audience better. I didn't hear I was a winner with the students. 

They needed to hear about good stuff I intended to deliver. 

The moral of the story is campaigns that promise Nirvana are what most people demand. 
 An election is not fought in a vacuum. Candidates have to listen as well as talk. 

Party Politics are not the same as municipal. 

The Party with most seats forms the government. They do have the power to apply a philosophy.
Whatever that might be. Sometimes hard to discern at other times, clear as a bell.

Politicians are a favourite target for comedians, cartoonists, pundits, preachers, prophets and the man in the street  for making promises, poor decisions, Ill-advised comments and on some days just breathing.

Quick wits and facile tongues find them easy pickings for their own livelihood.

Every four years, voters are expected to make their way through the tangle of everything they've heard and make a choice. 

The dilemma for a politicians  is how to survive.  

From my perspective, at the municipal level, the challenge was always worthwhile. 

But It's harder than just telling people what you know they expect to hear.  

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, and the students voted for Mr Gallo to be mayor if I recall that right. Can't remember
which candidates they picked for council but they were strange ones.

She Drew the Short Straw said...

I wouldn't have envied that poor girl.

Anonymous said...

Someone could be spending time figuring out how to keep the coons from trashing the garbage every week.
Hibernation is still a long time off.

Anonymous said...

Serena Williams just got beaten. which sort of ends her campaign.

Anonymous said...

The Italian women are having a wonderful tournament .,their take-home money will be well deserved.