Yesterday was Super Sunday and a huge  marketing day for the two main political parties in Trinidad.

Both PNM and UNC Alliance  held massive rallies to tap into their tribes and  each relied  on their party’s key stories to capture the crowds. Granted those stories had a mixture of the selfish and the scurrilous; the heartfelt and the honest. 

Both parties knew what was at stake.  That if  they told their  stories right,  the masses would  believe them and would  mobilize  their  tribes around the key   messages. 

Rallies serve an important purpose; they stir up  passion, they convince the converted, they provide the spectacle. The party whose messages resonated  yesterday will press ahead today  with some measure of tempered confidence..

As much as electioneering is about stories,  it is also a numbers game. 

• The party with the most votes win. 
• The party  with the most crowds at late night political meetings foretell the  future. 
• The campaign with the biggest funds get more air-time. 
• The one with the most air-time gets more attention.

There are two concerns with the latter point.

The first  about the conflicting role of  the media as purveyors of information and business entities was expressed  really well  by media and cultural consultant, Josanne Leonard, this weekend on facebook. Leonard wrote: “ Where did we get to the point where the role of the media is simply to make money by selling block prime time to political parties. She argued that “Spectrum” airtime is a resource that belongs to the  people  and that public interest and democratic principles  were largely being ignored in the period leading up to the election.  

My concern has more to do with the quality of the analysis on the airwaves and in print.  We have too many media outlets and broadcasters who have clear political agendas and they  are so loud with their megaphones  that they are drowning out reasoned  public discourse. Radio today is extremely  inflammatory with its  over the top rhetoric and newspapers concerned about getting scooped,  go for the most salacious headlines;  TV programmes  with the exception of a  select  few,  lack the  experts to give their programmes a decent balance.

I suppose that stories and numbers are grounded in a strategy that works during this starting gate period. Bus people in, provide enough food and drink. Add the picong. Throw in the music. Whittle down each other. Tell the most atrocious  stories. Stoke the fires.  This is  a winners take all game after all

Here’s my concern though, inflammatory  slash and burn politics has always been the stuff that the  ideological fringes were made of.  Decades later  it continues  to seep into the center of the discourse. My hope for  Silly Super Sunday was that we would have  learned something. 

But I look at the newspapers today and I see we haven't come that long a way.

When you’re looking for the perfect dress, do you go to your favourite boutique or do you go to the store across the road  with its unappealing window,  the one that  never really catches your fancy?

That window tells the story.

It either appeals to or repels your taste and its attraction is based on what story it tells and what story you want to hear.

Essentially that boutique on the corner  is attracting your worldview and every person in the market place  has one when it comes to what they’re buying. It might be, "I don't care about that," or it might be, "all big companies are inflexible" or it might be, "I love that store window"

When a story aligns with a person’s  worldview, there is something to discuss and take note. When it doesn't,  the conversation becomes inaudible.

Since the May 24th. bell was sounded I’ve thought a lot about this alignment, the connection that happens when stories stick and  spread and  the dissonance  that occurs when stories don’t find traction in the market place.  During an election cycle, politicians spend a lot of time telling (negative) stories about the competition: Who stole what? Who did what? Who is more corrupt ? 

It's illuminating, because it makes the resonance idea really clear. 

Take  the UNC / COP Alliance and its theme of  change. Change is a story that resonates with both the UNC and COP  base, not only because the party’s  lead candidate is female and her potential win makes it the first time that a woman might  govern the country but because her lead of the party represents a generational change,   a gender change, and a   somewhat reluctant passing of  a baton.  This is a world view that resonates with a lot of its base and beyond.  

But  many  wonder about   the story  of  change. Is it real? Is the desire to get rid of  the ruling party the only thing that makes the coalition gel?  And so the story the  PNM is suggesting:  that the current opposition is weak, its  coalition unstable and  the suggested  theme of  change as real as Pinocchio’s tales,  also  has traction. 

Should we care about these stories? Which ones are truthful. Which are the  ones that resonate ? The fact that they are told with vehemence and speak to tribal fears, do we even care?

We should. It is imperative that we choose our stories wisely, because we have to live with the story tellers for a long time, and if they are  not authentic, if  they don't  hold up, we’re left with nothing. 

You had a chance to be amazing. But you wasted it big time.

You had  the power to change everything. To create a remarkable society. To help develop the economy. To create a community that believed. To make our country the best little engine in the world.

How dare you squander the resources by giving so much lip service and not doing much of anything.

How dare you look after yourself and forget those around you. How dare you settle for the spectacular when the basics weren’t even right.

The lesson is basic. 

If you’ve got what you’ve got. Use it. Use it to become the best in the world. Use it to change the game, use it to effect positive things wherever you are. Stop pointing fingers. Use your resources to make things happen

Shucks, did you think I was talking about the PNM/ UNC/COP?

Go figure. In fact  I was talking about YOU. 

Still it’s not too late. Go ahead make something happen. On May 24th, there is still something called, “We the People.”