All politics are ultimately local. Tip O’Neill, the American politician voicing that opinion, didn’t mean international issues couldn’t play a role in elections. He was observing that when an individual votes, the key factors influencing whom he or she supports would generally be based on local issues that significantly affect an individual’s life.
While many Americans and Canadians might maintain that how they ultimately vote in a federal election can be linked to considerations beyond local issues, including a political party’s foreign policies, according to O’Neill, the vote will be based primarily on factors touching closer to home, such as job security, health programs, taxes and education.
During the rise of W.A.C. Bennett and his Social Credit party in B.C., many initially reacted as if that party had some kind of embarrassing contagious disease that ordinary people would be advised to avoid. Many people in urban areas acted as if little support for the Socreds even existed.
One acquaintance liked to maintain he was the only person he knew who would even admit they had voted for Bennett. But, according to him, Bennett and the Socreds were the ones who recognized that B.C.’s bountiful resources were simply waiting to be exploited for the benefit of the people, and Bennett intended to be the leader to ride that issue to power.
One key way to achieve this objective was for the provincial government to construct a vast array of sophisticated highways and bridges, especially in rural areas, including the Okanagan, where the Bennett family had considerable business interests.
The rest is history. “Wacky” Bennett delivered the goods the population needed or wanted.
Sometimes, politicians can meet the pent-up needs of a society in transition, as did the colourful Camillien Houde, former mayor of Montreal.
While many considered Houde a practitioner of dubious policies who “generously disposed of patronage” and “winked at the city’s brothels and gangsters,” some believed Montreal benefited from his controversial time in office. One admirer summed it up by saying while Houde might have been corrupt, he was corrupt in a fair way.
Even Toronto’s deceased controversial mayor Rob Ford is still remembered by many of Toronto’s population for actually carrying out policies that benefited them, such as overdue improvements in mass transit. One factor that reportedly made Ford popular was his policy of personally answering telephone calls from those who wanted his help.
In the U.S., Chicago’s mayor Richard Daley recognized that politicians who wanted to win elections had to understand the needs and desires of their electors, regardless of presumed or traditional political leanings. He and his son managed to hold power for decades because they, too, believed that at the end of the day, all politics are essentially local (roads and basic municipal services, etc.) notwithstanding all the rhetoric about other matters, including issues in far-off countries where democracy is nonexistent.
One person who has capitalized on such political realities is Donald Trump.
Despite the overwhelming consensus that Trump would never survive as a viable candidate, he managed to defeat a series of prominent rivals, including all of the traditional and mainstream grandees who assumed they would continue to dominate the Republican party.
However, Trump instinctively understood the underlying reality O’Neill had always recognized: At the end of the day, all politics are essentially local.
Trump, however, has gone one step further. He has deliberately chosen to exploit the built-up frustration and anger of a large segment of American society who feel abandoned or marginalized by their country’s traditional leaders.
To capitalize on such discontent, Trump conveniently found a scapegoat allegedly responsible for the sense of abandonment many Americans now feel: the presence of 11 million Mexicans living illegally in the U.S., allegedly taking jobs away from ordinary Americans and allegedly responsible for much of the crime in the U.S.
Trump’s message has fallen on receptive ears among many who feel alienated and isolated from their own society. They want the United States they once felt a part of.
And Trump maintains he is the only person who can bring back the past they want restored.
Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator.
