Dear 2008 Presidential election candidate. I know it is summer of 2007 and the glorious processes of election preparation are already in full motion. Hopefully it is not too late to provide you with a list recommendations I have to reform your campaigns and thus win MY vote. (tongue in cheek)
1. First and foremost, fire your campaign advisors. I know this may feel out of your comfort zone, after all you may have hired the winning-most advisor with the best percentages. They may argue that they know the political ins and outs and are the most qualified to help you navigate the terrain and secure victory. But alas they misunderstand what I want, which is really just to know a bit about you. Since you should be your biggest fan already, then I really see no need for the men behind the scenes. If you really feel the need to hire people, then hire your friends and family, seeing as next to you, they know the most about you.
2. Please remove words such as liberty, freedom, terrorism as well as other emotionally laden trigger words from your vocabulary. I don’t care how well the phrase “freedom in the face of terror” polls, yank it! It seems to me to be meaningless rhetoric devoid of real substance and will only distance me.
3. While we’re at it, may I also suggest you remove all sentences and phrases that serve to oversimplify and gloss over the truth. A good question to ask yourself is, “Could this line double as a quote from a comic book?” For example I would remove this line: “The people who did this act on America and who may be planning further acts are evil people… They’re flat evil. All they can think about is evil. And as a nation of good folks, we’re going to hunt them down.” Good and evil generalizations may help a 7-year-old understand why the Green Goblin wants to hurt Spiderman, but it does not serve to help me understand years of political, religious and social unrest on an international scale. Please have a little more respect for my intelligence.
4. Don’t waste your time attacking your opponent. If your opponent attacks you, do not retaliate. Your silence will position you in my mind as the stronger choice, one not reduced to mindless bickering and name-calling. Simply talk about yourself, acknowledge any weakness your opponent may have brought up and use them to make you more human to me. Sure you smoked pot in college, or went through a divorce, I can forgive you. Leave the digging dirt on your opponents up to the public and the media. The worst thing you can do is have the strongest case for yourself be “at least I’m not the opponent.”
5. Put your time where your mouth is. You love kids and think education is important? Instead of holding rallies and giving speeches about education, go into a city and demonstrate your ideals by volunteering at a school, even after the camera turns off. You’ll gain more respect in my eyes by good PR than rallying a mass of drones who are told when to applaud.
6. Speaking of speeches, if you didn’t write it, I don’t want it coming out of your mouth. I didn’t vote for you to be a dummy mouthing the words that come from the ventriloquist speechwriter’s mouth. If you cant compose a speech yourself than Im not sure you are qualified to run my country.
7. Don’t lay the patriotism on too thick. If I thought my country was perfect and the best than I would simply want you to maintain status quo. The truth is no candidate states this goal and all the overdone patriotism seems misplaced. Sure we are a great country, but lets not kid ourselves in thinking we are the best. I would rather a candidate look to other western countries on level ground for ideas, advice and collaboration rather than look down on them from a high throne we built ourselves. A little bit of national modestly would go a long way.
8. Don’t label yourself. Don’t even call yourself a Democrat or Republican. You may believe in taking strong actions to reduce global warming, but also believe in reduced taxes and gay marriage. As long as you have a coherent stance, I don’t care which side of the table you appeal to, just as long as your views appeal to me.
9. Don’t take any money from any corporations or lobbying entities. I know this is tough, especially if your opponents aren’t playing by the same rules. But you cant truly talk about reforming an ailing system if the powers that exist to keep the system are feeding you out of their hands. Eventually you will develop kind feelings and feel a sense of reciprocity playing right into their cards. Instead, seek creative ways to do more with less dough. Don’t focus on the money but your message. There are many free ways to get your message out beyond a cheesy commercial during Wheel of Fortune.
10. Speak to ALL people NOT just probable voters. Its an endless cycle, politicians don’t see that enough young people vote, so they don’t target their material towards them. The young people don’t hear politicians speak of anything relevant to them, so they are uninterested and apathetic, and don’t vote. Seek and engage the young people, they have the most potential for enacting change.
Hope this helps!
Good luck,
Melissa Delzio
