Electile Dysfunction

You know the symptom: that limp unaroused feeling you experience at election time when there is no enthusiasm to vote for any of the candidates? Many Trinbagonians have been suffering in silence with this condition for years. Some people call it voter apathy, but it should now officially be a medical condition.

Once again, the two major groups of political swamp dwellers - the People’s National Movement and the United National Congress - are vying for your votes (definitely not mine) in the upcoming Local Government election. Of course, they’re not the only options, but voting for the Movement for Social Justice, the Congress of the People, Watson Duke’s fan club or some other disgruntled former political swamp-dweller is like saying that you won’t vote for the parent, but you’ll vote for the child.

My unsolicited advice is that the apple does not fall too far from the tree, so don’t waste your time. But really, which independent person can get excited to go vote for any of these parties? They’ve all had several opportunities, but the results are similar: inflation with stagnant salaries; governments unable to combat crime; constant disregard for the views and ideas of citizens; being forced to sit helplessly by as corruption runs wild in government procurement departments from PTSC to almost every government ministry and agency; and enduring the perversity of ‘consultants’ (who just happen to be related to politicians) getting paid exorbitant fees. I surely can’t vote for that.

But politicians aren’t bothered by people like me because they always have the racial ‘Trump card’ (pun intended) to play. These political parties, especially the one that created the political swamp – the PNM – and the one that takes full advantage of living in it – the UNC – peddle almost exclusively in the politics of race, and Trinbagonians allow it. When a party puts an Indo- Trinbagonian to contest a position or seat in Central Trinidad or a dreadlocked Afro-Trinbagonian in the North, they are encouraging and exploiting that sense of racial bias. The sad part about this is that the electorate still hasn’t figured out that they are being treated like prostitutes.

At election time, political parties have their way with the electorate and then the day after, they get dropped off at the side of the street, until next time. This is especially true in the rural UNC ‘strongholds’ where race is always more important.

But it is more palpable in the West and Port-of-Spain and environs where Afro-Trinbagonians religiously vote their race, ignoring the fact that the PNM has done absolutely nothing to improve their way of life. It’s appalling. From Morvant to Carenage and Diego Martin there is no running potable water in many places, many people live in squalor, crime is on their doorstep, and despite empty promises year after year, they vote PNM anyway.

In politics, ‘stronghold’ is a euphemism for describing a strong racial demographic, plain and simple.

Policy and progress are irrelevant.

These parties want to keep us dumb and divided because it is the only way they can conquer us. How can I, or anyone with an ounce of sense, get excited to vote for that? Those in the political swamp don’t care about our condition.

They offer no remedies or solutions because they can’t. Instead they use fear of the other side to get votes – the lesser of two evils argument.

In my view, as long as ‘evil’ is part of it, no one should vote. That same electile dysfunction is what just gave America its most bigoted president since Ronald Reagan. But don’t blame the electorate; blame the party for not offering the people better options. Just look at the numbers: in 2008 and 2012, President Barack Obama received 69.5 million and 65.9 million votes respectively.

At the time when a winner was declared, Hillary Clinton had less than 60 million, which was even less than what John McCain lost with; and then Mitt Romney got a couple million more and still lost his White House bid. That significant drop in the democratic vote is why Hillary lost. More interestingly, at the same time, President-elect Donald Trump won with even less votes than McCain. The final tally is still ongoing, but the preliminary numbers show that voters on both sides experienced electile dysfunction, but Hillary paid a bigger price.

Electile dysfunction is important to a democracy because it coerces politicians to leave and/or drain the swamp and focus on the people. If you want our votes, do what’s best for citizens and not financiers and business interests, or you’ll learn a harsh lesson. Our votes aren’t automatic.

The Democrats got the message – it’s our turn to teach that same lesson to the PNM and the UNC.