Twitter Party Leaders' Suicide
Political party leaders of every stripe must come to grips with one fact. Twitter is not for them. It’s for us little people. No fame or fortune but we are independent. What we say is home grown. It’s what we think. We don’t speak, ‘on behalf .…..’
Party leaders are paid employees. No. Make that human megaphones. They are elected to represent what supporters think is the ideal. It could be:
l no taxes for the rich
l $20 an hour minimum wage
l free books for primary schools
l cutting down trees to build condominiums
l supporting oil companies to push whales from their homes to die on the beach
l reduced immigration from certain countries
l don’t buy anything made in China (which will leave us wretched and naked).
Political parties have handlers that advise leaders about current headlines, upcoming religious holidays, controversial anniversaries, how to bring back members that defected, how to attack the opposition etc.
Party leaders tend to forget their advisors, who are just a door away. They see something on Twitter and immediately identify it as an opportunity to bash the opposition or ruling party.
Erin O’Toole, who used to be leader of the Conservative Party of Canada is a case in point. He lost it a week ago when his caucus voted him out. They were not happy with him for one reason or another, but his support for truckers’ blocking Ottawa, was his self DELETE.
If he had used in-house advisors, they would alerted him about the pitfalls of any perceived or real support for the minority truckers. Twitter cannot minimize the importance of think before you leap, especially if you represent other people.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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