Tricks or Treats: What Halloween and Politics Have in Common
Ahh, Halloween! It’s that special time of year when children (and those young at heart) don costumes and venture out going from place to place in search of goodies, or to play tricks. If you are lucky, you come home at the end of the day with a bag full of treats having avoided the tricksters.
Halloween is the perfect metaphor for politics.
As summer gives way to autumn, Halloween enthusiast began searching for the perfect costume—it’s the chance to look like someone else for a day. As campaign season gets underway politicians engage in something similar—they put on their best face, say the right things and show up at the right places.
As Halloween gets closer, stores put candy on sale and people stock up so when the day finally arrives they can give it away to those who come knocking. During campaign season candidates make promises ensuring voters that the “treats” they seek will come once the candidate is in office. The “treats” candidates promise vary depending on party, policy and polling, but all politicians promise something in return for your vote.
Then comes the actual event. You put on your costume or cast your ballot and its either tricks or treats. For the most part Halloween ends in treats and you go home exhausted but fully satisfied. Voters typically are not so lucky. Election Day comes and goes and voters typically just end up exhausted. Despite the promises, despite going to the polls so your voice is heard, the “treats” are rare and you end up feeling “tricked.”
Over the last several election cycles voters have been promised: debt reduction, tax reform, healthcare reform, immigration reform and deregulation, just to name a few. To date these issues have yet to be addressed to the satisfaction of voters.
As Halloween comes up this Saturday another opportunity emerges to engage in the “trick or treat” tradition. As the 2016 Presidential Election approaches candidates and voters again have the opportunity to engage in the political cycle. Will 2016 be/result in tricks or treats?
Images courtesy of kidinsider.com
