Vexed Bermoothes

15 days to the election and the PLP continues to stoke the emotional heat. At all costs, they need to keep the focus away from substantive discussion of their track record or their future plans. And especially away from speculation about their future leadership.

But it’s getting ridiculous. The latest PLP radio and internet commercials alarmingly warn “Michael Dunkley is out to get you”. Yes, ladies and gents, he’s going to hurt you by questioning the multimillion dollar funding of the CITV station that no-one watches! Look out for the white boogeyman!

Every PLP campaign activity so far (from push polls to PR extravaganza) has been designed 1) to sell us Dr. Brown or 2) to demonise the UBP. The campaign is manipulating base emotions instead of appealing to our voters’ intellect. They show a mastery of political technique, but are wrought with a selfish lack of caring for our community. Most Bermudians distrust the cheap hucksterism of these promotions.

We all lose when a major political party stakes its entire future on building this “us versus them” hysteria in our little island. The PLP’s focus is not on building unity amongst “us” … it’s simply about demonizing “them”. That’s destructive and it’s dangerous.

We’ve been down that road before and most Bermudians do not care to return to it.