I’ve come to realize I could never be a politician.
Well, to be honest I would never actually want to be a politician – I have this weird character flaw in that I tend to keep promises – but if I ever did decide I wanted to join the ranks of those smiling, suited speech-makers, I wouldn’t stand a chance.
Wanna know why?
Once, when I was in a particularly mirthful and uncouth frame of mind, I reposted a picture on Facebook that depicted famous and well respected deaf and blind author Helen Keller in a black and white photo sitting with a large dog. The caption read: “Here is a picture of Helen Keller with her cat, Mittens.”
It’s a totally inappropriate and politically incorrect thing to have reposted (but, to be honest, that’s just how my humour rolls anyway), and if I ever ran for office, my opponents would seize on that posting to claim I was insensitive to people with disabilities. I’m not, of course, but rather simply someone who once (or possibly numerous times… don’t judge me) posted things which others might find offensive on social media.
And it doesn’t matter that my posts are only shared with friends and family, because anything you post – or have ever posted – is fair game if you want to be in the public eye.
I’m pretty certain a bunch of people who wanted to win seats in the latest holy-moly-when-will-it-ever-end federal election wished they had known how their social media posts would follow them around like toilet paper stuck to the bottoms of their collective shoes.
So far this election, we’ve seen a Liberal candidate resign because of Facebook posts about marijuana, two NDP guys quit because of remarks about Israel and the Catholic Church, plus there’s the infamous “pee in the mug” Conservative hopeful and the other one who posted prank calls on YouTube.
And if memory serves, that’s not even a complete list of potential politicians who’ve had their careers dashed this election because of posting or tweeting something online – sometimes years and years ago – which could hamper their party’s chance of election.
And quite frankly, it boggles my mind.
Politics is a big game, and lots of time, effort and oodles of money are involved in federal campaigns of this nature. The stakes are high. So, if the parties take time to vet their candidate’s criminal records, credit ratings, past business dealings and political affiliations, why don’t they get someone to just – I don’t know – friend them on Facebook and see if they’ve ever posted anything that could offend half of the country? It makes you wonder how any of these people are going to run the country if they don’t even know how to use a mouse wheel to scroll down someone’s Facebook timeline.
But the candidates themselves are even more to blame. How could they think they could hide from their online posts? It makes me wonder what someone like a Nixon would have posted on Facebook or YouTube had it been around. Can you imagine some of George Washington’s tweets?
“Chopped cherry tree. No lie.”
It’s too late for those who have already had to resign, but maybe not for the rest of us who are still anonymous. If you think you may want to run for an office in the future, maybe now is the right time to vet your own social media feeds and see if you may (like oh so many of us) have innocently and without thought posted something which could be used against you somehow. And it isn’t just politics, either. Increasingly, potential employers are asking applicants to friend them on Facebook so they can troll the feeds and see what kind of person you are. So, that rant you posted one night after too many Irish coffees may come back to haunt you.
As for me, I’ll never run in the federal election circus – or even a municipal one here in Squamish – but I will clean up my social media act, go back through my feeds, and delete anything that could tarnish my reputation (such that it is)… and before you step into the limelight or hit the job boards, you should as well. After the whitewash, I’ll be more careful, conservative and …um… sober… whenever I decide to post anything in the future. And that’s a promise I plan to keep.
