I hadn’t heard of this phrase until President Trump came to power in the USA. He is a “dealer”. He wrote a book called the Art of the Deal, which is essentially his idea of doing business. However, he has since adopted the same methods to politics.

In all his dealings, it’s about trying to get the best deal for him, his friends and the USA (in that order). I don’t think he really understands the concept of doing the best thing for its’ own sake.

I have been thinking about how transactional politics plays out here in the longer term. The Conservative party have always leant towards taking care of wealthier people.

Promising to reduce taxes and regulation has a fundamental weakness as a transactional strategy. By definition, you create a smaller voting base. As society becomes more and more unequal, voters who aren’t in that wealthy bracket start voting for other parties.

The way around this problem is to masquerade as a “party of the people”, adopting populist causes. You might actually be one of the wealthy elite, hanging about with crypto billionaires and lead a jet setting lifestyle, but its’ surprising how politicians like Trump and Farage can get away with portraying themselves as sticking up for the workers.

If you can pull of that trick, you can retain a large enough voting base. I think many people are fooled by this behaviour. Many others see through it and conclude that the whole business of politics is just grubby wheeling and dealing. They respond by not voting at all.

I don’t think all politicians or political parties are to be thought about in the same way. Of course, any organisations that include human beings are going to have difficulties from time to time but the thing that sustains my optimism is “values” and that exists within all people and parties to varying degrees.