Silly Things
Consultants

It's only a short time ago that political leaders were just people having their own ideas, even if they were not always at all respectable. But no matter how little appeal those ideas might hold for you or otherwise how much weight you could attach to them, every politician -either a swindler or a philanthropist- would do his utmost to convince you his thoughts were the most trustworthy ones. His power of persuasion was a matter of paramount importance when struggling in the political arena; creative thinking, a lucid and true visionary style... they were the best favorite weapons he had to make full use of in order to achieve his goal, perhaps sometimes also having to pitifully resort to lies and deceit... but that's another story.

In the 80s a new race in the political fauna began to develop: the political consultants. These really strange characters are absolutely devoid of ideas of their own (or, if any, they will be totally irrelevant or despicable). They improve position -it seems to be their main aim- through spending a fortune on polls which get information about the general opinion: once these extremely expensive surveys reveal which the people's concerns and desires are as well as which set of values and expectations they stand for, then they start to make their proselytistics speeches, choose their government policies or even change their lifestyle in order to wholeheartedly agree with the "public sentiment".

They are outstanding actors whose ability to deceive fit them perfectly to meet people's aspirations. The staging gets at all completed with the help of some expert advice on their public image specially focused on clothing, hairstyle and the most strategic choreography... everything aimed at succeeding in accurately expressing the right atmosphere so as to hook their audience and catch their votes.

The opinion polls are not wrong. There is no doubt that when such a polished performer comes to power it should be regarded as a celebration of democracy... as people could never find a better representative in government.