Politicians should stop convincing us they’re good. They should focus on the solutions they advocate, the advantages and challenges of the solutions, and how they’ll get bipartisan support for them.

Convincing us to vote for them

Quite often, we hear political candidates speak about change. If elected, they will change the immigration laws. Or they’ll change the regulations of big banks. Or they’ll change the current approach to foreign policy. However, after laying out the changes, the same candidates then launch into convincing us to vote for them. The conversation shifts away from methods of carrying out their proposals. They spend the majority of their time convincing us to vote for change. But they don’t dive deeper into how that change will happen.

Convincing us to dislike the opponent

As the election nears, politicians spend more time convincing us that their opponent is bad. Negative campaigning generates anger and fear among those who already support the politician, so they’ll donate more. It also makes for sensational headlines and social media impressions. But negative campaigning prohibits productive conversation. It distracts us from discussing the details of important issues. Instead of reviewing action plans, we spend time worrying and analyzing the opponent’s responses.

Convincing us to vote for them or dislike the opponent are common political tactics. But they don’t help us make good decisions. If politicians want to change the face of politics, they have to do something rare. They have to talk about real solutions.

We Need Specific Actions

In order to change politics, we need politicians who will do more than say what they want. They’ll use their platform to share specific actions and paths to achieve the goals they speak of. We need politicians who spend less time on public relations and more time on actual strategy.

Once the action plan is out in the open, opponents can criticize the path. They can then offer a response that outlines a better path. Instead of focusing on each other, the candidates should focus on policies and actions. The elections would become more about actual change. They wouldn’t focus so much on the candidates themselves.

The Current Election Could Be Different

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump disagree on a lot of laws and policies. For example, Trump supports expanding the military. Clinton disagrees about expansion. In a political world free of convincing, Clinton would share the reasons she disagrees and what her desired outcome is. Trump would explain what his desired result is, why he wants the expansion, and how he can get to his goal.

This would be a policy-based public discussion that would inform the public. It would give voters a clear idea of what each candidate stands for. However, all too often, we bear witness to the mudslinging between these two. Their back and forths in the media is more focused on their personalities than their policies.

If we want to achieve real change in politics, our politicians need to stop convincing us. They need to start sharing with us instead. We need more focus on the pathway to change. Or we’ll never get there.

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