This is excellent:
There are three main Ford camps:
1. Stick it to the man (screw the rich, screw the politicians)
2. Misplaced loyalties (I have a special interest that RF claims to support, but he'll probably end up doing the opposite)
3. Participatory fame (The Khardashian Complex)
Group 3 doesn't care about the politics, they just want a blurry pic and a story to impress their friends.
What worries me is #3.
Supposedly Ford’s 2010 election was won by people voting who normally do not. Judging now from what appears to be happening on the Chow campaign, and Tory’s to a lesser extent, is that different groups of previously apathetic or non-voters are being mobilised. Partly by Ford’s performance, no doubt. How this plays out, I don’t yet know, but I hope good comes from it.
But rather than pissed-off drivers or closet homophobes ( and there are plenty, including a rainbow of some of the nicest religious people you’ll ever meet), 2014’s soft supporters of Ford may be the selfies and Kim K-for-president cohort. It's been surprising how big it is, no?
It may not be enough to elect, but it may be enough to scare. A bit like 1995 Quebec Referendum night.
#3 worries me more if we’ve now crossed the rubicon or jumped the shark into a zone where if not an infamous mayor, but a famous-for-being-famous mayor is sufficient.
Is city politics that irrelevant to 99% of the population, that this scenario might be OK Joe, good enough to go? Close enough for rock and roll?
Cue the cynics about the civics. But citizens trying to make their home a better place to live isn’t that weird, is it? It might be an old idea, but even some animals do it. Or if it plays better in TV gangsta language, even the Sopranos used to say “you don’t shit where you eat.”
If full-strength purple Jesus Ford is too much for now -- like Idiocracy's President Camacho -- will Ford Lite be next on the mayor menu?
ETA: maybe the "Stick it to the Man" people belong at the top of the "Misplaced Loyalties" list, 'cause they stickin it to their fellow man instead.