An Appeal To Celebrity Endorsers
One of my idols has called for support for a candidate who has nothing but character (not even the good or bad kind just the popular) going for him at this time. This particular candidate has been in politics for some time now but has no substantial track record to show for it. More importantly, he doesn’t have a decent platform yet which people can use to gauge his worthiness for the presidency.
I’m disappointed.
I really don’t care who my idol chooses to support. However, I do care that he seems to have forgotten the adage “with great power comes great responsibility.” As a celebrity, his endorsement — premature as it is — can easily influence many impressionable minds. Considering how sheep-like many Filipino voters are, this is a certainty.
My biggest issue here is that there is not enough basis yet for anyone to make an intelligent decision as to who is worthy for the presidency yet here comes this celebrity rounding up support for a candidate. Sure, we can judge the candidates by their characters; we may even review their past achievements; but, without their platforms, their plans, we will never get a complete idea of how they may fare as our president.
In his blogpost titled “Choosing A Candidate Should Not Be A Risk Assessment”, Ben Kritz wrote this gem of an insight on the importance of platforms:
A platform, by comparison, carries with it certainty. Even if a candidate sought “to hire the best and most creative platform-writer in the business to craft an attractive set of planned actions, principles and visions,” the resulting platform becomes his word, as surely if he wrote it himself; whether he succeeds or fails to follow through on it, there is a clear statement of his intentions with which he can be held to account. It is an objective tool the voter can use to make his choice, whereas ‘character’ and ‘record of accomplishments’ are not. The best anyone can do, given only those inputs, is make a guess, a risk assessment. Sometimes that turns out well. Sometimes it does not.
Does that mean that ‘character’ and ‘past performance’ should be ignored? Well, frankly, yes – if that’s all the candidate is offering.
I’ll say it simply. My idol shouldn’t have come out with his endorsement. There’s no way he can say that he based his decision on a complete assessment of his candidate’s qualifications (character, achievements, platform). The simple fact of the matter is his decision was really based on nothing substantial.
Well, what’s done is done. However, I can still appeal to other celebrities to do the right thing. Please do a thorough assessment of the candidates first. Also, be honest with yourself. If you feel you cannot make an intelligent assessment don’t even dare reveal your choice to the public. Finally, be a little more patriotic; don’t endorse anyone just because they are willing to pay you big money.
