On the importance of being negative.

• Author: Atkins, Michael
• Position: PRESIDENT'S NOTE - Column

I was sitting down in the living room the other day trying to figure out how to explain the nature of politics to my 10-year old daughter, Jackie. Not that she had asked of course, but it seemed sensible to be prepared should the moment arise.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This is not easy to do and needs to be squeezed in between the new parrot, George, who lives on Jackie's head, basketball practice, homework, guitar lessons and sleepovers.

The real problem is not Jackie's schedule; it is that I don't think North America really has much of a democracy anymore, notwithstanding the repetitious calls for freedom and democracy around the world from American politicians running for dog catcher or president.

I don't subscribe anymore to the old saw "it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried" which came from one of its greatest defenders, Winston Churchill.

The problem is that elections are not about real choices. They are about tactics. Only tactics. Any tactics.

The appointment of Sarah Palin to run for Vice President of the United States for the Republican Party is so preposterous it defies imagination. She is a heartbeat from the Presidency. She is a tactic, not a candidate. She is incompetent. It is on par with asking me to become an astronaut by noon tomorrow, press conference to follow.

The discovery that negative advertising works better than policies, coupled with 24-hour cable networks, YouTube and bloggers, means all the money is spent on negative advertising trying to demonize your opponent. This is an American innovation now exported along with Mickey around the world.

The problem is that this construct destroys the essence of democracy which contains the notion that everyone has a free and equal right to choose who will represent them. Democracy is only theoretical if money, plus technology, plus demonization strategies (of opponents or people who won't vote for you) mean you made no choice at all, but were simply buffeted by competing bully strategies; things you advise your children not to emulate.

The best example in the Canadian Campaign of this tactic is Stephen Harper's attack on Artists.

"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala and all sorts of people at a rich gala all subsidized by the...