In these final weeks, before the election, there will be a
flurry of people or groups who will be gathering in front of microphones to say “we endorse so and so, for the
office of blah, blah, blah.”

Grinning with comfort and confidence will be any one of a number of people hoping you will be swayed because they think you see things the way they do.

These phenomena are called endorsements and are often necessary to help wanna-be elected officials, remove the “wanna” from the “be.”

But this process isn’t confined to the Saturday news conference or fundraising dinner. 

It also takes place on the pages of newspapers bigger and smaller than the PRESS everywhere.

The opinion to support this person or that by an organization, including newspapers, is not the result of some poll taken at the newspaper, as part of some democratic process, to figure out who the majority of the people there want for various offices.  It is usually based on feelings or opinions.

So an endorsement by any group — whether it’s the PRESS, Union 1199 or The New York Times — isn’t based on the needs or desires of the many in many instances, but rather on the few or even the one.  

In the case of a columnist like myself, I have the ability to say I feel “this way” about someone, and then write as to why I think you should feel the same way. 

In many cases, I get to showcase or show-off my command of the English language, to poetically seduce you to my way of thinking.

It is an amazing power that has been given to us by the machinations of the communicative element of society.  To be able to sway, if not control a large group of people with just a few words.

I can’t help thinking about one of the final scenes in Julius Ceasar, when the assassinating senators drenched in Ceasar’s blood walked to the crowds to justify his death. 

The crowd was moved this way and that before Marc Antony swayed them one last time.  Even as a young man I couldn’t help asking myself, “Are people, and thus we, really that susceptible to suggestion?”  

Recently, I watched a news special about opinions. A Canadian comedian would ask people the stupidest questions about things that were based neither on fact nor, in many cases, even fathomable by common sense standards. 

And despite knowing nothing about “the U.S. invasion of Saskatchewan” or “the U.S. blockade of Toronto” people did not hesitate to go along with the notion of giving their opinion about the subject.

Even the governor of the state of Louisiana was caught on tape, congratulating Canada on their first national igloo.

In some cases, but certainly not all, the endorsement is given based on some deep political undercurrent within the group or solo person making the pitch. 

You would be hard-pressed to find the unabashedly right wing newspaper or cable station in town picking a Democrat because they felt that was the right thing to do for the city, even though it might just be the right thing to do.

Sometimes it is based on simply not wanting to pick a loser, so that the person or entity making the choice won’t be shut out of some of the political patronage handed out by the winner. These include but are not limited to news leaks, exclusives, positions, appointments and legislation.

I was prepared to do my piece this week in the 2001 election, from City Council seats all the way to Gracie Mansion.

I thought carefully about my choices and why I believed they would be the best leaders for our city, districts and boroughs. 

I spoke to friends and asked them to argue against my points to see if there were chinks in my support armor, and then weigh my choices again.

Literally, in the eleventh hour, I decided not to reveal my choices to you.

 Why? 

Because the power shouldn’t be mine or anybody else’s, with a somewhat captive audience, to sway this way or that.  It should be yours and yours alone.

The political tense of the word endorse, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is not attached to the first definition but the fourth – “to give approval of or support to.”

The first definition of endorse is to “write one’s signature on the back of, as evidence that ownership has been legally transferred.”

I hereby transfer ownership of who you should vote for back to you, where it belongs, not to some person or group who thinks they are somehow better equipped to make the decision than you are. 

I only say to you, choose wisely, vote early and often.

— Gary Anthony Ramsay is a weekend anchor
and journalist on the all-news
cable station NY1 and along-time resident of Queens.