{"id":18781,"date":"2017-10-25T16:42:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T20:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18781"},"modified":"2017-10-25T16:42:02","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T20:42:02","slug":"politics-as-usual-one-hit-wonders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-one-hit-wonders\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: One Hit Wonders"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I watch the unseemly circus act underway in the States, I think to myself, how on earth did they get to that point? It isn\u2019t just the current President that\u2019s at issue, though he is at the centre of the current maelstrom of insanity. There\u2019s been a sharp turn towards issue driven politics for years now. So you can\u2019t lay it all at the feet of one person.
\nFolks get involved in politics for many reasons. Most of them \u2013 but clearly not all of them – if not noble reasons then at least for good intentions
\nMany want to serve the public, do good for their communities. Others have a particular issue that they want to see addressed or fight against: A pipeline through the Province or clean-up of a toxic waste site. Or a proposed tax increase \u2013 or decrease, as the case may be.
\nSome have had success with being a one issue candidate. I can think of a few off the top of my head. But the issues were \u201cbig \u201cissues, ones with significant and wide reaching implications. The province\u2019s bottom line was affected. Or national policy was affected. Fundamental changes to how we live our lives were at stake. Candidates that ran on platforms that focused on a single issue of importance, have had success. If the issue affects just a handful of folks it won\u2019t gain any traction.
\nIt goes without saying, but petty local beefs rarely translate well to the interests of the wider voting public. Maybe some local news coverage. But in the long run it does little to garner the sustained attention of the general public. Unless, of course, the \u201cissue\u201d is some nebulously defined issue like making your country \u201cgreat\u201d again. Whatever that means.
\nThat being said, though, every vote counts. So discounting the views and interests of folks affected by a local issue is similarly short sighted, as a candidate to the south of us learned rather recently.
\nIt\u2019s the balance that matters, in my opinion at least. Mindful of what is important to the country (or province, etc.) as a whole and to individuals.
\nYes, unfortunately, pandering to certain groups can also play a part. We\u2019ve seen an unfortunate rise in \u201cissues driven\u201d politics in elections across the globe. The politics of division has always met with some success. But the pendulum usually swings back. Usually. Let\u2019s hope for our sake it does swing back soon.
\nThat\u2019s why political self-interest dressed up as righteous indignation is rarely in the public\u2019s best interest. And it shows. It gets a little bit of attention but then fizzles just as fast. Why? Because, at their core, most people are self-interested.
\nThat isn\u2019t a slam against anyone. It\u2019s a fact. And it makes sense. If we weren\u2019t interested in preserving ourselves well, goodness, who would? So if an \u201cissue\u201d isn\u2019t in the broader self-interest, then no one will pay any attention. And that\u2019s never a good thing in politics.
\nIt\u2019s like the one hit wonders of the musical world. They may get a hit, get some moderate success but then quickly fade from view because they never had anything to offer but a novelty. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas As I watch the unseemly circus act underway in the States, I think to myself, how on earth did they get to that point? It isn\u2019t just the current President that\u2019s at issue, though he is at the centre of the current maelstrom of insanity. There\u2019s been a sharp turn towards issue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4SV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 10:27:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}