Pandemic elections

WHILE SOME people think TT has beaten the virus, at best what we may have done is delay the reckoning. The fact is covid19 remains a serious threat. While we cannot stay in lockdown indefinitely, neither can we go back to the way things were.

The virus is continuing to kill people with alarming ferocity. As epidemiological experts have warned, this disease is going to stalk our lives for another year or more. That means learning to live with it – or die, depending on what your interpretation of living is.

This pandemic has profound implications for another impending disaster – our general election.

I recently looked at a webinar featuring some political analysts assessing prospects for the two main contenders in the US presidential race. With the presidential election due in November, pundits are predicting some interesting challenges amid this omnipresent viral menace.

One of the analysts pointed out that US President Donald Trump derives his life force from the radiant adoration of supporters at mass rallies. In a world controlled by this pandemic, it would be reckless for the political parties to stage mass gatherings. As such, Trump will be cut off from his primary source of power – the arena of fresh meat for the maga squad.

Analysts also recognised that his rival, Democratic challenger Joe Biden, faces the same problem – he won’t, or shouldn’t, have access to crowds to power his campaign.

These men also share another problem – neither Biden nor Trump electrifies in videos. They tend to come off as stiff, aimless and detached. That’s not great because video has taken on a prominent role in communications given the way the pandemic has reshaped the way we connect.

Here at home, our political parties will be faced with the same conundrum. If they do the responsible thing, there will be no mass rallies. No big-fete politics with music trucks and seas of red and yellow T-shirts. Candidates going house to house peddling their wares just won’t fly in this here time. There can be no kissing of babies on constituency walks – no doorstepping of voters with a phalanx of flag-waving disciples, and that one shady guy in the background with darkers trying to hide his beer.

Even if candidates wear masks on their community walkabouts, it won’t work. Everyone has realised by now that masks muffle your words...on second thought, all candidates should be legally compelled to wear masks.

The prohibition against gatherings should extend beyond community motorcades and traditional pressing of the flesh over fences.

So far we haven’t gotten any clear indications of how political parties expect to interpret social distancing in election campaigning. After all, our politicians also draw their strength from the central battery of the political rally.

Dr Keith Rowley, in particular, truly shines on stage. He is a politician first and PM last. Without a platform at the Eddie Hart Grounds to passionately hammer home his messaging, how will he fire up voters?

Dr Rowley is in his natural habitat at a shaky mic-laden podium standing over a sea of red-till-ah-dead zealots speaking on important national issues like...the Kamla.

Similarly, how will the Opposition Leader whip up support/demonise the PNM without the benefit of Mid Centre Mall or the Aranguez Savannah?

Political rallies in TT are theatrics and mass distraction. As such, our politicians have never been good on their feet picking through the issues that affect our everyday lives. Without the open-air theatre of the political meeting, how will they strike a chord with the masses who feed off picong and bombshell bombast?

The UNC has been doing some virtual live meetings, presumably a substitute for their Monday night meetings. Both parties will have to adopt a culture of weekly virtual meetings to get their message out there, whatever that message is.

When the election bell is rung, the parties will need to move more quickly to embrace technology. Again, this assumes political parties will do the responsible thing. The Government can’t very well have spent the past few months drilling social distancing into people’s thick skulls and then ask those same people to come out en masse and huddle together in hatred of the other.

Getting the vote out in a pandemic will certainly be a unique test for politicians. It’s going to require some creative reimagining of the creature called the election campaign. Sadly, our most enduring quality in TT is an affection for thinking inside the box.