Thursday, March 03, 2011

Bringing Out the Vote



In the land of hard calls and second worst options these are the choices we're offered. A lot of months have passed since I started saying the LPC needed to reset, retool and rebrand. They couldn't wait to undo Dion, who in retrospect looks like four times the leader for all his many failings. The long knives held by the back room brokers were drawn for poor Stephane from the moment the last convention ended. Sadly, the entire nation pays for those long knives and the harm that the corporate cracker club does by their wielding.

The LPC will give Harper another minority if they are lucky. If they aren't lucky, we'll see Harper installed in his long awaited majority like Gollum finally clutching his precious. The party of the sneering middle managers isn't up to beating the party of the inbred preachers kin. We no longer choose from those we best trust but rather from those whom we hold in least contempt. We now hedge our bets against the lesser of damage vectors. The LPC have been playing a losing hand for years running and they haven't learned a damn thing or gained back a lick of trust or respect.

Perhaps having the Kim Campbell moment is the best we can hope. Perhaps it'll wash the sordid dregs of the old party out for once and finally. Perhaps the raw lesson of a Harper majority and having no more illusions about hidden agendas, denials and whispers... perhaps that's what we need to begin to reclaim this country and steer it back towards moderation and common sense. Toward humanity, dignity and peace. Successive Liberal and Conservative (Progressive or otherwise) governments have driven the ship of state up onto the rocks. It is no one group or person responsible. It is the culmination of a political climate that has grown more petty, more greedy and more lazily corrupt. So here we sit with parties that speak to our worst instincts of avarice and fear, led by pissy little people grubbing and sneaking from every aisle and angle.

We are now a nation that can countenance the false arrest, beating and abuse of a thousand of our fellow citizens in the streets of our largest city. We retreat to our lcd screens and prepared foods and turn our blind eyes to crimes against humanity not just abroad but here at home. We share our complicity by the happy glow of Dancing With the Stars as we light up the internets with celebrity sex & death gossip at a pace that defies all logic. We willingly burn off our energy squealing at adolescent confections and shopping with a maniacal fervour. We feed our need to ignore by drowning in a sea of the forgettable.

Perhaps we've gotten the governments and leaders we deserve. It will take more than a charismatic long shot to undo the damage that's been done and that threatens. We're a people asleep or as someone once said, we're amusing ourselves to death and we're desperate to distract ourselves so we don't have to notice. Maybe that's the only way we can face ourselves when we've become a nation that can wink at the rule of law. Maybe the bigotry that dwelt in some of our hearts has metastasized and now one can applaud for tiered justice and selective applications of human rights and not be a pariah. We can as a nation, break our treaties and covenants regarding the fundamental underpinnings of our civilization and rationalize it through cultured fear and weaponized ignorance.

10 comments:

Dana said...

Ka boom.

Brilliant.

Simply brilliant.

Kudos.

Moon Rattled said...

I agree with much of what you are saying about the Liberal Party and the opposition in general, who seem to be acting like deer caught in the headlights. I can't agree that a Harper majority will be Canada's wake up call though, based simply on trends in the US. Many liberals thought an Obama victory - after ten years of a corrupt Republican government catering to the fundies - would bring them back to a saner time, but as we can see, the Republicans are a zillion times crazier and more fundamentalist than ever, fueled by news media that has become entertainment/supportive of crazy and greedy people. I fear Canada will never recover if Harper gets a majority. He has already begun dismantling our democracy, while the liberals and ndpers sit by and watch and occasionally pitch in to help him.

I almost miss Chretien. At least he had the balls to tell Harper to fuck off. Ignatieff and Layton have to take the gloves off and stop being polite with these douchebags.

Lindsay Stewart said...

There's another side of the dynamic in the States that I think should be instructive. While the Republicans remained toxic, the Democrats remained soulless and impotent. It wasn't as though electing a vague black man with a sonorous voice was going to instill sanity in the right. But Obama has proven to be a weakling leading a party of bought enablers.

There was never a consensus or a will to enact change in any fundamental way. The Dems squandered every opportunity to lead by kowtowing to the pig people. And that is largely because they serve the same masters. After all, when you buy up politicians it only makes sense to corrupt both sides.

We're in the same boat today with Conservative potaytoes vs. Liberal potahtoes.

Rev.Paperboy said...

Nice to see you warming up for Sunday ;>

liberal supporter said...

The Nader strategy, "I'll vote my 'conscience' and not to prevent the far right from taking power" didn't work too well in the States, did it? Obama is finding it extremely difficult to undo the damage, given that the usual far right strategy is to weaken the ability of the government to do anything. The far right is well entrenched there now. It wasn't so much before.

As I recall psa, in 2008 you stated that you preferred to vote in some way other than the surest way to end the "Harper Government". How many people did you sway to similarly do something other than focus on the most certain way of ending the Harper Government?

Is deciding not to vote for the Liberals really that important compared to the disaster that awaits us with a Harper majority? Is being able to sneer that you didn't hold your nose and vote for the Liberals that much more important?

Voting out of spite (oops I meant conscience) instead of to prevent a disaster is the Nader approach. Supposedly, punishing us all by giving Harper a majority will teach us all a lesson. Unfortunately, it won't. It will only make it possible to establish the CPC dynasty. Once the game is rigged so that the CPC is always better financed, and anyone who supports another party will find they get CRA auditing them every year, we will have a hard time finding a way back. I'm sure some will enjoy the romanticism of fighting the government, joining the Underground and all that, the rest of us would rather have our country undestroyed.

We need you to help prevent that. Will you?

Lindsay Stewart said...

good frickin' grief lib supporter. obama rode a wave of popular support into the white house. he had majorities in both houses and promptly became just another crony humping politician. the cartoon of bipartisanship was little better than acquiescence to an opposition party that was mired in scandal, shame and failure. and yet he and the democrats either allowed them to dictate the agenda or delivered their agenda for them. finding it difficult to reform, my beige arse, the effort was never made.

we don't live with a two party system. the "nader" is built into our system from the outset. you are absolutely correct that i didn't vote for the liberals in the last race. their candidate failed to run a campaign, no materials, no presence, no responses to inquiries by email or by phone. i didn't vote for the cons either. i decided to vote for an independent not out of spite but because it was the better choice for my riding. it was that or stay home.

the surest way to end or prevent a harper government is to have a viable alternative. the liberals were not and are not that. they are still as crooked and misguided as they were two years ago. i don't trust ignatieff any more than i trust harper. based on their performance over the last years, they've done bugger all to earn the trust of this nation and that is reflected in their dismal polling. for all of the crooked, shitty things that signify the harper gang, the liberals still can't climb out of the pit they dug for themselves. that might be instructive, no?

the surest way to have undone harper was to have taken a run at a coalition. but it wasn't me and my vote that undid that option. it wasn't the votes of the hundreds of thousands of former liberal voters who have not been won back. it was the back room, greasy manipulators that run today's lpc. it wasn't me that voted with harper or skipped votes or refused to do the job of her majesty's loyal opposition. it was the liberal party of canada that has made an art of waffling, failure and missteps.

take your sanctimonious whine to vote for the incrementally less shitty party and hoop it. your snotty little number is a good part of why the lpc is in the state it's in. you offer nothing but a pout. where's the agenda? i get the letters from the lpc braintrust begging for money. i get the emails honking about how swell it is to ride a bus and go to a barbecue. i sat through the online summit of 'thinkers and doers' and all of the people that spoke with wisdom and passion came to naught when the party leader got to the mic and essentially promised more of the same watered beer and weak tea. they make a grand show of listening but they aren't hearing.

go and vote without a conscience if you like. go and vote for the 'we're not them' party and when you and those like you commiserate your loss, at least you'll be able to blame someone. by all means, blame me for the failure of others to lead and inspire. blame me for the absence of policy and courage that your last, best hope brings to the table. and rest assured, i will vote for the candidate in my riding that i feel will best serve my neighbours and i. in light of your comment, perhaps it is fitting that the liberals are running the same candidate who lost this riding last time. learning, it seems to fall outside their grasp.

Dana said...

Hear, hear, again.

thwap said...

PSA,

I wrote a lengthy appreciation but blogger ate it.

So all i'll say now is "good job."

liberal supporter said...

take your sanctimonious whine to vote for the incrementally less shitty party and hoop it.
Funny how the most sanctimonious are always the first to call everyone else sanctimonious.

your snotty little number is a good part of why the lpc is in the state it's in. you offer nothing but a pout. where's the agenda?
Good government without fascism is the agenda. Always has been. The Liberals tend to be without an "agenda", and perhaps that is your problem with them. Too pragmatic and wedded to the real world I suppose. But, just as Harper has made "branding" something we are supposed to care about in politics, he has also made having an "agenda" somehow a good thing. You're falling right in line with that thinking.

I have pointed out the most certain way to avoid the fascist takeover. You are the one pouting because you don't like that fact.


i get the letters from the lpc braintrust begging for money.
I do not. I'm not a member or known to them. All I give them is my vote.

go and vote without a conscience if you like.
Claiming I have no conscience is insulting. It is also typical of those who try to claim the moral high ground. Baloney, I say. Your actions are likely to help bring about a CPC majority. Stick that in your superior-to-mine "conscience" and smoke it, as they say.
I know lots of people who seem to make a hobby about complaining about how bad their lives are partly because of the government. But when asked to something that would actually help, they make excuses, often invoking conscience or principle. As if I have none. I think doing nothing (staying home) or doing something ineffective, is more unconscionable.


go and vote for the 'we're not them' party and when you and those like you commiserate your loss, at least you'll be able to blame someone.
So it's all about having someone to blame? No. I am challenging your searing "man the barricades" rhetoric, and finding that once again, it's phony. Compared to your rhetoric, you're actually happy enough with your situation that you're not going to do whatever is necessary, even vote for yucky liberals.
If you saw Harper as the clear and present danger that I do, and did not see it like some hockey contest where we try to assign blame when we lose, you would not be handing me this crap.

rest assured, i will vote for the candidate in my riding that i feel will best serve my neighbours and i.
Stephen Harper thanks you. You can hold your head high, maybe get one of those "Don't blame me, I didn't vote for Harper" bumper stickers.

in light of your comment, perhaps it is fitting that the liberals are running the same candidate who lost this riding last time. learning, it seems to fall outside their grasp.
Yes, liberalism is a mental illness as all the BTs are so fond of telling me. Come to think of it, a lot of your talking points about the liberals sound just like them.

Keep believing, chum. It may soon be all you have.

After all, if you can't be holier than me, well then you'd be nothing, right?

Lindsay Stewart said...

lib supporter, i'm not buying what you are selling. i don't believe that the liberals as currently constituted will provide good government. and i'm responsible for exactly one franchise. you put your vote on the ballot where you like and i'll do the same.

the liberals tend to be without "agenda" not because they are untainted but because they don't stand for anything. when they do take a fucking stand it's a sure bet that stand will shift with the winds of the next poll or focus group. that isn't pragmatism, that isn't the real world. it's opportunistic creeps that will dash madly in any direction that might give them a win. not for the pursuit of good governance. not to save canada from harper but because they want to have power. their motives are no purer, nicer or more noble than harper's.

i'm saying that the best way to beat harper is to have a better product than he does, make a better case for it and present your better ideas to the public in an appealing manner. let me know when any of that happens. instead...

holy fuck! the cardboard guy rode on a bus. look at the adorable patrician eating a wiener. watch the once mighty liberal party of canada release statements, backtrack, stutter and stumble before folding up like a house of cards. they have no platform, stand for nothing in particular and that don't do their fucking job as opposition. is that the team to give us a better government?

i'm awfully sorry i hurt your feelings when i insinuated you would vote without a conscience. but then i'm a "spite" voter, so i suppose you'll just have to suck it up you poor wounded fawn. i'll cast my vote in perfectly good conscience. if the liberals can make a case, if their candidate takes a moment to visit the riding and present that case, i may vote that way.

but if the liberals go down to what looks a likely defeat, it won't be because i didn't vote their way. it will be because they couldn't get some of the record number of canadians who've given up voting altogether to come back to the polls. the reason we're likely to end up with another cpc government isn't because they're winning, it's because the libs are losing.

you still haven't stated in any regard how a liberal government would be better. you are echoing the party, nothing to offer but reaction. no policy, no content just a boogie man.

you want me to do whatever is necessary. pick the lesser of evils. hold my nose and vote for a bad party and hope it's less awful than the other bad option. that's what you ask and i say no. if the ndp come out swinging and give me a strong candidate, maybe. if the libs manage to stumble into a lucid moment, maybe.

as for your mental illness comment... well i didn't say it. i didn't imply it. my comment was simple. i'm sorry it eluded you. the lpc blew it last time and not only haven't learned from their mistakes, they're setting out to repeat them. i guess stephen harper can pen them a thank you note after he fills one out for me. you've got the holy card all locked up, i look forward to seeing you in your sandwich board letting us all know that the end is nigh. in the mean time, pack up your passive aggressive act and piss off. chum.