Political Strategies

One of the most important tools that politicians used in the past and still do today is to relate to their audience. By telling anecdotes and providing occasional glimpses into their personal lives, they attempt to shift the public's view of them from someone of a high, powerful position to someone who shares their joys, their tears and their struggles. In a way, politicians humanize themselves in this manner.

Take President Trump, for example. Much of his popularity was due to the fact that he was not a politician, but a businessman, by profession. The people wanted change, and he had a different background than other politicians, which played out well for him. Every Trump supporter said the same thing: "He is the change America needs." He told the story of his success (the infamous "small loan of a million dollars") and this resonated with the public. 

This strategy was especially used by President Obama during his campaign as well as his presidency. He sometimes told anecdotes about his daughters, (like when Sasha taught him how to use Snapchat,) which many other American adults could relate to. Like many politicians he made appearances on late-night TV. All this contributed to humanizing him, making him seem like just another American, and reassuring the public that they were being led by one of their own.

The prompt we read claims that these anecdotes that politicians relate don't need to be true, they just need to function as bridges between the public and the politician. I suppose this is true.  But I don't think the right word is "artifice" - they don't need to be cunning and deceptive. Rather, they need to possess the ability to relate to the audience. Storytelling is simply a method for this. An anecdote which relates to the audience requires a certain level of authenticity for it to work. But at the end of the day, I guess these anecdotes don't necessarily need to be true; they just need to be accurate.

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