YOU ARE BEING MANIPULATED

Citizens Beware! Citizens Be Aware! You are being Mislead, Manipulated, and Deceived in this Election.

There is an old axiom that the truth is the first casualty of war. We are seeing that axiom also applies to election campaigning in Alberta these days. This is because the two parties, who are actually being considered as viable voting options in this election, are in a political culture war with each other.

They perceive the “Other” side not as their political opponent but as their mortal enemy. The goal is not just to win the election by defeating the opponent, in a culture war the goal is also to destroy the enemy. In the Finite Game of election campaigns, there is no second prize. You either win or you lose. In the immortal words of Vince Lombardi: “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

That is what partisan electoral campaigning has come to in Alberta. Winning is everything and its seems at whatever the cost. Ends are used to justify means. Some of those costs are money, but more importantly, is the cost to democracy. This loss of faith in democracy is a cost due to the growing and pervasive lack of trust in our political systems, especially by the non-partisan moderate majority of Albertans.

Democracy runs on mutual trust and good faith amongst citizens and with their democratic institutions, including political parties. Trust and good faith are foundational to our democratic institutions and that depend on their transparency, honesty, and integrity.

Transparency, Honesty, and Integrity are core values We the Citizens of Alberta expect from our government and our elected opposition. They rank in the highest levels of citizens’ expectations of Alberta’s elected representatives.

We don't always get these values in the people we elect or who serve us through our institutions. In fact it is becoming rare to see these values in action in our overall political culture. It is now at the point that we are no longer trusting our politicians to be truthful, forthcoming and open with us.

This is the situation because we know we are getting intentionally manipulating and deceptive political messages. This is escalated at election times. The campaigns are full of emotional triggering images and language. They are intentionally advancing half-truths, and all too often, outright lies and deceptions, especially to the partisan bases

All this is intended to damage the political enemy rather than advance a greater awareness and better understanding of issues and challenges we all need our governments to attend to and find actionable solutions.

It’s a lot like Edward de Bono’s “Catch 23.” I have adapted his observation specifically to politics where he noted the political talent and skills needed to get elected are not the same as those required to govern once elected. While this may be true, the core values of transparency, honesty and integrity that we look for in our elected representatives, are the same before and after elections.

Read this link for an analysis of an UCP election ad that is a textbook example of misleading manipulating political messaging. It is very disturbing to see the lack of transparency, honesty and integrity on display in this example of campaign messaging.

Do not accept this erosion of core values as normal in our political culture. It can't come to that in a free and democratic Alberta society. Democracy can't survive without trust in our political institutions and those we elect to serve us through them.

Be an aware, informed and a very careful voter on May 29th.