Rabid supporters of political parties are the Don Quixote’s of our times – any perceived threat to their base or incumbents results in them ‘Tilting at windmills’. This English idiom which means “attacking imaginary enemies”, originated from Miguel de Cervantes’ early 17th century novel Don Quixote and from the romantic, ill-thought-out actions of the story’s hero of the same name.
A new windmill may not be an enemy – in my case, as a Windmill, I am fervently aiming to put the focus back on People and the City – ‘People First and the needs of Politicians last’ – #aimforchange.
Politics is like a franchise: If you join a recognised franchise then you have a good chance of being elected
BUT:
- If you stand as an independent candidate you are taking on a party machine
- If you stand representing a new party you are basically an SMME taking on big corporates
- Every successful candidate tithes a portion of his salary to the mother party – let’s call it the ‘Franchise Fee’ – so vested interests abound.
Existing political parties have a machine to crush any opposition.
Existing political parties have enormous momentum from their supporters who fight for them.
Smaller parties do not get the airtime and exposure afforded larger parties – I am not saying that this needs to be ‘corrected’ or ‘skewed’ but am only pointing out that this is as a result of their longevity, accumulated information released and votes received over many years.
Much is always said about “Splitting the Vote” – usually by the incumbent, their supporters or their party.
It is true that existing parties that do not hold the seat can benefit from “vote splitting” BUT the real possibility does exist that a ‘newbie’ could be voted in if the voters are looking for change and would appreciate being put first ahead of any party political considerations.
So at the bottom of the list are those guys who want to stand:
- A little bit out of the party political scene
- Just for their Ward and City
- Aiming to to make a change that is positive
- And put people first
As a publisher I am well aware of the value of exposure in the editorial of any publication. As a publisher I do receive (very rarely from time to time) a thank you from those savvy businesses, political parties and the like that use Media Monitoring Services such as Newsclip and Meltwater. These services have a formula and subsequent value that they apply to every mention of their clients – for instance Newsclip calls that valuation their AVE (Advertising Value Equivalent). MyPE has had sight of many of the AVE’s placed on mentions in articles and these values range from R3500.00 to R53000.00 per article.
So lets look at the numbers of results below and ASSUME that EACH mention is worth a paltry R3500 in AVE for the party/person concerned. For me this is a true indicator of just how LARGE the mountain is that I need to climb in order to make any success of a tilt at Councillor for Ward 7:
Personally, the enormity of the task at hand is illustrated via the Google Search Results you see below. It is common knowledge that I have run MyPE.co.za for many years (We are well into the second decade now) and that I have a simple editorial policy: “If it is about Port Elizabeth it is in!”.
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Alan Straton
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