People who routinely lament “nothing ever changes”, clearly have their eyes shut to both the many good and disastrous changes that happen around us. A glance at history tells us that significant improvements to health provision, the environment, business reliability, welfare support, dispute resolution, etc. can be achieved through the appropriate public policies. Equally, every indicator of quality of life can dip, or even plummet, when callous and exploitative measures are implemented by undesirable regimes.
Changes are real. They are substantial. They are not random. And the most important means for controlling them is political power.
We should not neglect campaigning for causes, joining groups to raise shared concerns, donating to charities, or protesting against iniquitous acts. But they are no substitute for political power. If we do all the other things, and yet keep away from electoral politics, the result is that the unscrupulous will step in, take power, and use it to advance their self-serving agendas at everyone else’s expense.
It may be comforting for some that retreating from political contests to concentrate on ‘good deeds’ means they can feel positive about their role in life. In reality, nothing can alter lives more than the exercise of political power. To allow charlatans to take political office is to open the door for them to introduce laws, policies, arrangements to impoverish more people, put more lives at risk, damage the environment irreparably, pervert the course of justice, extend corrupt practices, and spread distrust and hatred.
Our first priority as citizens must be to help secure political power for those most likely to help society with that power and least likely to abuse that power against the public interest. That means we have to assess every political contest as it is, and not pretend we are living in an alternative idealised world where a ‘perfect’ candidate will appear and win with our unwavering support.
Each contest presents us with critical choices. Increasingly these come down to a run-off between an arch-manipulator (charismatic to their followers, ever ready to lie and distort, shamelessly corrupt, indifferent to the suffering they cause others), and someone willing to fight for a better alternative. That alternative may not satisfy everyone, deliver all desirable changes as fast as possible, or meet the expectations of all sections of society. But when it is either that challenger with the alternative vision or the arch-manipulator, it must be obvious that anything short of backing for the former would lead to victory for the latter and the most dire consequences would ensue.
Nonetheless, some people are quite content to stand back and let charlatans win because they insist they will not vote for anyone except for the ‘perfect candidate’ in their eyes (even if that person has no chance of winning); or in some cases, they believe that letting swindlers take power will stir public anger and hasten the day when the revolution comes.
Such delusions must be cast aside. The only ‘revolution’ that comes is the dismantling of public services, subversion of law and order, undermining of human rights, and escalation of preventable suffering. If life is to get better, if the ruthless is not to keep hold of the power to rule over us, we must accept that, above all else, we need to rally behind the candidate who will offer a more decent alternative, AND who is best placed to defeat the charlatan who endangers the common good.
We have seen in the US and the UK what happens when too many people refuse to follow this course. Let’s not make that mistake again.
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