It's all about us

First published in 2008:

The Canadian political leaders spent the recent election campaign telling us what wonderful people they were. What they should have been doing is telling us what wonderful people we are.

There is a strong narcissistic streak in the public. The appeal of politicians like Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan was that they told the voters that they (the voters) were wonderful people and that consequently they (Mr. Mulroney and Mr. Reagan) were going to do wonderful things for them.

At the moment one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States talks about how the American people together can accomplish great things, while the other talks about how only some of them – the “real” Americans – can accomplish great things. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time, but you can get pretty close to flattering all of them, and at the moment the one who is flattering all of them is leading in the opinion polls.

It is flattery, too. Most of us are just great lumps. Most Americans couldn’t find the United States on a map, and they’re supposed to accomplish great things? But it makes sense to them, so you can’t hurt yourself playing up to it.

In Canada, this is the secret of the Quebec nationalists. They continually tell Quebeckers how vibrant and dynamic their culture is. Not vibrant enough, apparently, to withstand a reduction in arts grants, but let’s not confuse the voters, eh?

So, if Stephen Harper wants a majority, he’d better start sucking up. We don’t want to hear about what a swell fellow he is, we want to hear about what a great bunch of guys and gals we are. Unfortunately, most Conservative politicians seem to believe that we’re really a substandard lot, the standard being Americans. It may take them a while to convert to the new approach.

And Jack Layton can stop talking about “everyday families,” eh? We don’t want to be told we’re good enough for everyday, we want to be told we can accomplish great things. You’d think a socialist could come up with something about the collective greatness of the Canadian people.

As for the Liberals, they blew their chance royally. Instead of calling their platform the Green Shift, all they had to do was call it the Just Society.

Democracy: it's all about us.

It's All About Us © John FitzGerald, 2008