Political Futures

Columnist Judi McLeod: “Used to be that politicians faced off their opponents in the fine art of debate. There was a time when sacrosanct elected officials met face to face with angry taxpayers, and at least gave the appearance of trying to answer some of their questions. Both those ideals jumped down Alice’s rabbit hole when Obama came into power and took over the social media networks. Why bother with statesmanship and run-ins with those plebes who pay your salary; why worry about ObamaCare when as a politician you don’t have to sign up; when all you have to do is come up with the right #hashtag like ‘Joe Schmo’s an anarchist and an arsonist’ and run your message in the blink of an instant across the worldwide web? Left on their own for any length of time, politicians will always find the easy way out, and character assassination by public messaging is the easiest way out. Nothing ever sticks to them after Tweeting their worst and they can laugh about it out on the golf links.”