rowen
DavidHere’s a critical object lesson in how @avilewis and the #NDP urgently need to stop proselytizing foregone conclusions, start asking open-ended honest questions, and learn to actually listen.
Pushing predetermined talking points, like the PR training emphasizes, is obsolete in the era of peer-to-peer information sharing and PR exhaustion. Set aside your talking points, put the voter before your party and yourself, and demonstrate in everything you say that, while the voter was speaking you were actually listening, not just waiting to talk.
That necessarily means that you cannot have any predetermined points to hit, because you can only begin to formulate what to say next based on what you just heard, and you can only do so if, the entire time the voter was speaking, you were focused exclusively on what they were saying, not what you’d say next.
We’ve already heard all your would-be talking points before you showed up. Repeating yourself is an insult to our intelligence and a disrespectful waste of our time. If you brought a microphone, stop acting like you only brought a bullhorn. If the voter is speaking, interrupting them by pulling the mic away to fight what they just said is entitled and rude. They aren’t there for your sake; you’re there for theirs.
Congratulations on your position in the party; that gets you nothing with anyone else. The voter owes you nothing: would you govern, the owing goes the opposite direction.
If you want to rule, not represent, we already have Pierre and Mark to choose from; we don’t need a third imperious narcissist condescending to us. If the NDP is ever to become more than an also-ran, you’ll need to live up to the “D” part of the name and demonstrate the humility of a would-be public servant, who seeks to represent, not to rule. You’re going to have to set aside your agenda, surrender control to the voter, empathetically and respectfully listen, find anything you can to validate, and connect the needs they express to policy only after they’re indicating you’ve earned their attention and consideration.
We already have two flavours of the same old shit from the Liberals and Conservatives; we don’t need a third. To be recognizably better, you must act differently. “The medium is the message,” as McLuhan wrote: the way in which you convey your message, is itself the performance of the actual message received. Communicate like an entitled elitist, owed attention and agreement, and no matter what you say, your overriding message is “I’m more important than you.” Would you serve our nation as our head of government, show in every moment of your campaign that you can and do take direction from the People.
Mamdani is not the only example. Witness AOC listening to previous MAGA voters about the contamination of their well water by the imposed AI data centre, then asking if she could bring samples to Congress. Witness Dr. Katharine Hayhoe listening to conservative Texan farmers and city councillors about economic concerns, and asking them if the greater cost efficiency of new energy technologies would help.
Where minds are changed, it is by listening and connecting, not by telling others what to think. (And before anyone goes there, about how I’m writing here: I’m writing this as a voter, not as a candidate for elected office. This is exactly what I’d be thinking, had I been in the situation of any of those people to whom Avi held a microphone, excepting them to play a pre-written part in his script.)
The average voter on the street is not a party member at your convention. If you’d be any better a government leader than Mark or Pierre, you’ll stop acting like them. I expect the conservative “Liberal” and the would-be fascist “Conservative” to dominate the conversation. I wish I could expect better from the leftist. Can I?
Mat Wright
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Freedom Flotilla Coalition
Derek Elliott, Libertarian
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Stephen Elliott~Buckley