A Citizen’s Guide to the Evolution of Political Persuasion

A Three Part Series on How Technology, Targeting, and Tactics Turned Voters into Data and Discourse into Division

Soapbox Politics

There was a time when politics happened in public.

A century ago, elections were grounded in physical presence and audible argument. Candidates stood on crates in village squares or addressed crowded halls in city centres. They spoke not to “audiences,” but to fellow citizens. Their words were spoken aloud, heard in full, and judged in re…