{"id":8054,"date":"2014-09-10T13:59:17","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T17:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8054"},"modified":"2014-09-17T15:52:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T19:52:24","slug":"politics-as-usual-140-or-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-140-or-less\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: 140 or Less…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cStop telling lies about me and I\u2019ll stop telling the truth about you.\u201d
\nI love that line (even though it\u2019s spoken by Gordon Gekko, in Wall Street). Though it isn\u2019t really about politics, he does fit the context nicely. In fact, it neatly sums up the current state of affairs in electioneering. Substance \u2013 even truth \u2013 doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s the messaging that counts.
\nThe medium is the message, as Marshall Mcluhan famously decreed. How right he was \u2013 and is. And how sad for all of us.
\nIt doesn\u2019t matter if what you are saying is true. In fact, it doesn\u2019t matter if what you are saying is a bare-faced lie. By the time the electorate catches on, it is too late. The message is out there for all to see and read ad infinitum on the internet.
\nIt\u2019s the \u201cif there\u2019s smoke there\u2019s fire approach\u201d to planting a message. The folks that mastermind these things know that regardless of what damage control is done to correct a false message, there will always be a certain portion of the population that will believe the lie. And sometimes that\u2019s all it takes to lose an election \u2013 just a small group of folks, misled.
\nTake for example, the \u201cBirthers\u201d in the US. These are a large group of folks where were\/are hysterically insistent that Barack Obama was not in fact born in the United States. This belief became so huge that it started a \u201cmovement\u201d. The President of the United States was forced to produce his actual birth certificate to the public in order to quell the tinfoil- hat wearing folks who refused to believe he was American. Even with the birth certificate, even with the doctors and the nurses at the hospital in Hawaii swearing to the legitimacy of it \u2013 there are folks out there that remain convinced that he is not, in fact an American. It would be funny, if it weren\u2019t so darn scary.
\nThat\u2019s why we are fast moving to packaged politicians. Where absolutely everything is scripted \u2013 from the clothes, to the language, to the placement of children in family photos. All done to convey a message, without saying a single word.
\nSometimes, the image masters get it wrong with varying degrees of fallout. Dukakis in that hair net pretty much sank his bid for presidency. Romney\u2019s story about tying the dog to the roof rack of the station wagon didn\u2019t help him either. Even recently at the Calgary Stampede \u2013 the images of Justin Trudeau and his little boy both wearing white cowboy hats shaking hands with Harper and his child both wearing black hats.
\nThat photo – white hats versus black hats \u2013 was picked up and run multiple times in multiple media. Not good imaging for Mr. Harper.
\nThe fact that it matters at all though is pretty pathetic. The fact that anyone would draw a conclusion on relative abilities to govern based on what type of hat someone is wearing is frankly depressing.
\nImage, tight sound bites, politics in 140 characters or less \u2013 this is what passes for political commentary now. The prevalence and prominence of social media is overwhelming. Twitter is now so \u201cimportant\u201d that the language police in Quebec are chastising a cabinet minister for not tweeting enough in the other official language. Seriously.
\nI didn\u2019t even know that Cabinet Ministers tweeted anything, let alone that folks would get their knickers in a twist because it wasn\u2019t \u201cFrench\u201d enough. For Pete\u2019s sake! Have people nothing better to do than count how many times a member of our government tweets in French?
\nApparently not.
\nPerhaps I am longing for a day that never existed or never will.
\nI just wish and hope that when I open the paper and read about what is happening in Ottawa and Queen\u2019s Park that I will read something of substance. Is there a plan to deal with our aging population? Is there a plan to address the sizeable population that has no pension? Will Canada still have its pristine waters and beautiful forests when my nieces and nephews have children of their own?
\nI wish I would see a display of \u201ccharacter\u201d that isn\u2019t 140 or less.
\nUntil next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is \u2013 after all \u2013 Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas \u201cStop telling lies about me and I\u2019ll stop telling the truth about you.\u201d I love that line (even though it\u2019s spoken by Gordon Gekko, in Wall Street). Though it isn\u2019t really about politics, he does fit the context nicely. In fact, it neatly sums up the current state of affairs in electioneering. […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-25U","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-11 05:00:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8054","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=8054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}