Gimmicks.
"When in office, Anderson was a vocal opponent of the domestic surveillance program carried out by the government and was a fierce critic of George Bush. He called for Bush's impeachment over the Iraq War and has been active in investigating cases of surveillance overreach. '
This guy was the fucking mayor of Salt Lake City. And he's not the only politician that uses this particular gimmick.
For example: where I live, we have a city council that likes to pass resolutions on world affairs. Because it's much, much easier to pass resolutions and rename streets than to ameliorate the housing shortage, skyrocketing rents, barely-functional school systems, the high cost of public transportation, corruption... Shit like this gives the voters the illusion that their local elected representatives are doing something when, in fact, they're not. You know: "The school's are unsafe? But we named a street after Nelson Mandela! So everything's good."
Biting the hand that feeds IT
