For Whom the Vote Polls -- the Armchair In-Activist

Before we vote in elections, we vote in polls -- telling our opinions, revealing public preoccupations -- so that politicians can tailor their messages to what they think we want to hear. What do we want to hear? Many of us want to hear we won't have to be bothered by yet another election. (Didn't we just have one? And doesn't it always end the same way -- with The Government?) But we probably won't get that wish. Political parties lust for the holy grail of A Majority. Yet, to their shared mantra of diversity, inclusion and equity, they should add "minority". (Only minorities can be diverse; a majority is by definition less diverse, more uniform, more herded.) 

The poll in the form of the online survey never includes diversity, for it excludes the whole offline part of the public. Often, that means the seniors -- the very citizens with most accumulated life-wisdom.

As for polls of candidates, no one polls perfectly. Some are good on, say, free speech but have never heard of animal rights. Some are good on eco-conservation, but terrible about history-preservation. T(here is reality-history, and fantasy-history, and any politician trying to please everybody is intersectionally intermixing knowledge with idiocy.) Some would preserve literacy, while simultaneously mouthing that Education Is Elitist. It must be hard trying to choose between principles and popularity, but then, candidates knew that that's what politics was like …

That's why, on the other side, not voting might seem the most rational plan: cherry-picking campaigns, not parties. Being an Armchair In-Activist. This citizen thinks, reads, considers (that's what an armchair is for: propping up a book on the arm, or propping your arm on the arm, as cheek cupped in hand you muse, read, consider …) Yes, the armchair's where the meeting of minds takes place, where private judgement meets public pronouncement. At least, it often does for the old-fashioned offline literate person -- who may be the politicians' most-missed target.