May the force be with you

Many people don’t ever bother voting, and they have their reasons, just like those who don’t miss a chance to vote have, theirs. I was always a sporadic voter, a voter disillusioned with the ratio between promises made and promises kept. As I got older, my disappointment turned into cynicism and it was all downhill from there.

As I’ve written here before, I don’t think there is ever enough time in any particular politician’s tenure to make any real change in policy because there is so much procedure to get through before getting to the meat of any issue. Before things are done being discussed, it’s election time once again. So, the merrygo-round keeps turning and we’re all on the ride. In Toronto’s upcoming mayoral by-election there are dozens of candidates this time around with a half dozen faves, and among those there is always a top contender. I don’t really understand why so many are vying for the position, it seems like they’re all thinking it’s going to be a nice, cozy job, but I’m pretty sure they know it won’t be.

It probably will be as stressful as any job can possibly be, but probably worse. How does one pick from the crowd? For the most part, what the candidates say publicly is always carefully planned, so one will never get a real sense of who the particular person really is. You cannot go by what they look like, that would be ridiculous. Track record counts a lot, and I’m sure they all have great resumes, some more impressive than others, although I’m pretty sure they all have good credentials. So how do you choose? Instinct is a go to, but people in politics also “learn” to speak to the public, they usually know what to say and how to say things.

This reminds me of U.S. presidential candidate Mike Pence, a couple of weeks ago, when throwing his hat in the ring, he did it in front of the Harley Davidson plant. Can’t get more Americana than that. Things are meticulously planned these days. I’ve learned to look around and behind whoever is speaking in order to get a sense of how staged things are.

So much is staged, these days. The teams of support staff surrounding some of these candidates are astounding. No wonder there are so many arguments based on truth. I never expected to see the day where truth was being debated on a global scale. In most people’s minds politicians have traditionally been on the darker side of the truth. With them the word is used with quotation marks.

So, again, how do we choose? And with so many candidates, it will either be a landslide or the thinnest of margins, given that the vote is spread out among so many pretenders to the throne. In my mind, one thing is guaranteed, in four years, we’ll be debating the same thing as if it were fresh, because deep down, we all know how the game is played.

Fiquem bem.

Raul Freitas/MS