Off Line Voters

-

Pic: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

Midterm election in the U.S. Provincial elections next door in Canada, but there are many voters that are not harvested because they are not online.

Twitter and online presence in general, is a time-consuming feat.  You need to follow politicians’ utterances regularly and monitor public response.  This is a mammoth task because Twitter is as fast as a heartbeat and many tweets are lost in space, unless they are from the Tweeter in Chief who has millions of followers, not counting hashtags, the foot soldiers.

In addition to time, being active online also needs some basic knowledge of English, French or Spanish, for North America at least. China is not in this equation because people in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other Asian countries are millions more than Canada and the U.S. combined, and their phones and tattoos are in Chinese.

Despite our love hate relationship with social media, it is here for now and affects how politicians are elected and how their performance in corridors of power is assessed. But, politicians’ exclusive use of social media might cost them some votes because there are thousands of potential voters that are not active online.

They do not care what is trending. They don’t know socially accepted words for certain lifestyles.  They don’t like writing, even if it’s 280 Twitter characters.  They don’t want their photos online. They basically prefer to fly under the radar. 

They have opinions about the state of the union or Canada but prefer to voice them in family picnics, cattlemen’s clubs, dairy producers’ co-operatives, fitness centres, book clubs, motorcycle clubs, staff room, favourite bars, temples, churches and synagogues.

They want to discuss bread and butter issues with ‘the man we sent to Washington or Ottawa.’  It is seldom a woman, but we won’t go into that today.  Non-Twitter voters want politicians to look them in the eye and promise that out of town banks will not lock up and go because of electronic banking, for example.

Voters that are not active online cause chaos during elections for voting outside the box created by the media and polls.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elections And Political Bullies

-
Image
Forget democracy.   It should be called political bullying. We are watching it in the prelude to the Canadian election on the 19 th of October, 2015.   Americans have also started their political bullying for the looming presidential election next year. So many trees wasted on books about democracy.   Some countries have big budgets for invading other countries ‘ to defend democracy’ but it is seldom practised in campaigning for elections.   Calling opponents names and printing flyers attacking each other is behaviour that will not be tolerated in kindergarten, but it is all legal, in campaigning.   It is irritating and such a let-down to the whole notion of democracy.   Grown-up men and women behaving like Grade One kids. It is also misleading because many voters believe it is real hatred.   Don’t let that fool you.   These politicians play golf together, attend the same dinner parties, eat and drink at the same social events, share jokes and cut deals in parliament.   They
Read more

Comfort Food As Regret Food

-
Image
Chicken curry. Comfort food is good for the soul, which usually bleeds in winter from icy roads, bad drivers that want to annihilate pedestrians, frozen fingers and toes that take a sabbatical.   What happened to my toes?   I thought I was wearing special socks for boots? We therefore have a right to comfort food which throws doctors’ orders out of the window and has no loyalty to calories.   No calculator on the table, thanks very much.   Piece of bread 5 calories, half a banana 10 calories, sugar-free cheesecake 2,000 calories.   Ah! Ah!  We only live once. Naw!   Comfort food is old school food with its compulsory second helping.   It involves licking fingers and giving a big sigh, about the good life, which is shelter, food, love and debt.   The problem is the zip.   The jeans remind you that comfort food can also be called you will regret food .   Home sweet home is even sweeter in winter after surviving blowing snow and bumper to bumper traffic. What is more welcoming th
Read more

No Air Miles

-
Image
I don’t have Air Miles.   I’m considering putting that on a T-Shirt because I cannot go to the drugstore (chemist) or coffee shop without the cashier asking me if I have air miles. We waited for about two minutes the other day, while this guy looked for his Air Miles card in his overweight wallet.   For what?   For a few points. I don’t have air miles because Mathematics is a foreign language.   I was never good in numbers. That is why I squashed the idea of being an investment banker very early in life.   I understand you can invest in cornfields before the soil is turned up or pork bellies even before a baby pig is born. That is how I view air miles, investing in tomorrow or the unknown.   I’m the dumb one.   Some people understand this air miles’ thing so well, I overheard one customer saying: I can even convert my points into cash. Points and air miles are the same thing in Canada and the U.S.   Drugstores or clothing stores even give you a card to collect point
Read more