Meanwhile, over at Raise the Hammer...

This article...

...and this response from RenaissanceWatcher, a reader:

The Twelve-Step Approach To Becoming Mayor of Hamilton- 2010 Edition

1. Become a local media personality.

2. Run for political office in a city where low self-esteem, short attention spans and low voter turnout are now the norm.

3. Double dip as a broadcaster and a city councillor whenever possible.

4. Benefit from the radio station you work at regularly playing sound bytes of your views on its newscasts.

5. Pick one major issue.

6. Benefit from one of your radio station cohorts daily attacking the incumbent mayor on that issue for the first several months of 2010.

7. Directly participate in a public fear mongering campaign on that issue for six months. Bring to a boil.

8. Vacillate to and from every possible position on that issue over time and wear a t-shirt for two hours to prove your new “commitment” to the proposal against which you had fear mongered for six months.

9. Say whatever you want to say to the Toronto media about Hamilton because your Hamilton media cohorts will not report it.

10. Wait until the latest possible date to leave your broadcasting job and declare your candidacy for mayor so you don’t have to declare the previous nine months of media “advertising” or the t-shirts as an election expense.

11. Benefit from one of your print media cohorts painting you as an independent thinker and the other two main competitors for mayor as part of the “old boys’ club” even though you are chronologically older and more connected to the “old boys’ club” than they are.

12. Promise everything to everyone.

Clearly, this is a mildly-prickly slagging-off of Mayor Bob Bratina. But I felt it was additionally an intriguing observation piece commenting on something much broader than RW's intent, and so posted thusly:

Addendum:

13. Rely on an under-informed, under-engaged citizenry rife with unqualified opinions (extrapolated from the statistic of 60% of votes cast in the 2006 Election 'based on name recognition')

My point?

My point is that while it saddens me to see how people seem inordinately drawn to play the 'blame game', to castigate, to vilify in so many Life-arenas these days, what truly astounds me is to witness how grand, how expansive the blind-spot is concerning the real root of so many contentious situations we've created: the public at large.

Or, using the phrase I coined to pacify 2010 mayoral candidate Mahesh Butani, after he voiced his concern that I was generalizing far too recklessly, 'Those of The Many'.

So?

So can we redirect that spotlight?

Please...?