Be present & be pleasant

I had a quite serious conversation over the weekend with an old and experienced political staffer.  The conversation really opened my eyes - and the booze wasn't too bad either ;-)

The standard approach of all politicians everywhere is to "Be present & be pleasant".

What this means is that our politicians need to be seen - everywhere and anywhere.  Hence the "Be present" bit.  Being seen means being as "over exposed" as possible within their local community.  They will usually become members of as many local sporting and social clubs as possible.  And often the local business or farmers association and even the local council are good targets for aspiring politicians.

The whole point of it is to get themselves out and about and in front of as many of the *locals* as possible.  Plus it will often get them into the local media - who often have nothing else to report on except sport.

But usually their actual intellectual contribution is minimal - because that hinges on the "be pleasant" bit - which is the hardest thing for someone with a working brain to do.

Apparently it is vital not to "piss anyone off" and so there is a standard process used by successful politicians everywhere - to listen intently and agree with everyone - when engaged in conversation.

The idea is to be a great and frequent listener - and an infrequent speaker.  In other words, they need to pretend to be interested and concerned enough - that you will feel satisfied when you have unloaded your gripes on them.

The only speaking we expect from them is when they are opening a new sporting facility and in that process they are heaping exorbitant praise on the locals for building and staffing it.

Of course it is all a charade. Because politicians are concerned with getting elected - not with fixing your problems.

But the thing that is really interesting about all this is the character and personal makeup of the people who do it - term after term.

There are few people with the self discipline to get elected regularly.  The ones who do are naturals - which also means they are the wrong people to change things.

So next time you get to choose a political candidate - vote for the bloke with the opinion and the big mouth - at least he has the passion to do something - other than get elected.