The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Permit me to be so brash as to lecture the great washer Dionisio d’Aguilar in a course I call “Politics 101”.

You, sir, are not the messiah. You peddle soap powder and washing solutions. It is perfectly logical for you to wake up one morning and go looking for a new location for your next launderette. It was rude and uncouth to give an interview to the press letting on that you are shopping for a constituency whence you can launch your nascent political career.

Politics is supposed to be a grass-roots affair. Political parties have as their base a network of local branches. The branches are supposed to lift up a candidate that they feel would best represent them in the halls of power.

Trickle down politics is often very much resented at the branch level and even on the streets of the constituency. “Who you is?” will be a question the candidate imposed on a branch will be asked all the time. “How come I never see you round here before?”

All the wash tokens in the world won’t negate that kind of campaigning deficit.

And please don’t let the perception set in amongst the voters that yours is a “revenge campaign”. Perish the thought that you only vex because of how Perry Christie and the PLP “roll out” your boys at Baha Mar so you are looking to exact your pound of flesh.

Here’s a novel idea. Familiarize yourself with a constituency. Walk the area and talk with the voters. Ask them what their problems are. They are a font of knowledge. Listen to them. Respect them. Then go away and think about how best to serve them.

Next, join the branch and ask them for their vote of confidence. Humble yourself in front of the real keepers of the FNM flame and ask them for the privilege of being their voice on the campaign trail, in parliament and in government.

If you have solutions and you ask them nicely enough they will embrace you. They will campaign for you. They will protect you and they will carry you where you want to go.

Flying in like a sudsy superman is a recipe for disaster. As we can all see, you indeed are a very busy man. So concentrate on the important things in life. Ask the branch to let you in the game.

Remember, all politics is local.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

October 1, 2016.