And so it's come to this - after years of pillorying every opponent, of maligning any source of contrarian information, of positioning spin as truth and justifying every breach of ethics with an attack on someone else, the Political Right is getting their comeuppance and they don't like it.
Various voices on the Political Right have portrayed Stephane Dion as unCanadian, dedicated Civil Servants as inept and citizens who have supported the environment and indigenous rights as dangerous to Canada's national interests. Attack, undermine and conquer - it's what they did to get ahead. Now they are ahead, perpetrators of the same sorts of divisive tactics they once pilloried opponents for, but instead of backing down, they're doubling down.
Now, we have Rob Ford declaring the Toronto Police are on a witch hunt, out to get him, Jesus-esque ruler that he is. We have Ezra Levant calling the RCMP Liberal shills, out to undermine the Conservative Party/government; the two appear to be, in his mind, interchangeable terms.
Of course, neither Levant nor Ford, nor Harper or any of his team have ever stopped to consider the broader context in which they spew their vitriol - that's not their concern, after all. Winning is.
While Levant has, under pressure, been forced to back-pedal when called out for labelling one group with one brush, his most vocal political allies have not. And then there's the fact that Levant himself is right back at it.
The same is happening in the US; factions within the GOP have decided that it's their way or the highway. After Karl Rove promised them a permanent shift in the political landscape, far-right conservatives looked at Obama Term #1 as an anomaly soon to be rectified. When that didn't happen, they started to look for conspiracies to justify why the world wasn't working out the way they thought it would, but also to justify whatever actions they felt necessary to set it right.
Ford is the best damn mayor since Jamestown, he'll tell you. Harper is the most democratic leader since Solon, Pierre Poilivere will tell you. One's a sinner, one's a saint, but both are bulwarks against an leftist apocalypse and that's what matters most. The fact that more and more people - political, non-political, even law-enforcement - are increasingly challenging them only proves how righteous they are.
If ever you doubt the End of Days threat the left poses to democracy, security and economic stability, just tune in to Fox/Sun news - no talking points there, just raw, emotive truth.
Forgive them Lord, they care not what they do.
We have a shrinking middle class - those who once had are becoming have-nots, joining the ranks of those who never have had and are at a breaking point of helplessness. People with training, experience and successes under their belts are being told to compete forcefully for jobs they are overqualified for.
Whatever happened to The Just Society, they are asking? They live with mounting injustice; the frustration is boiling over into anger. People have lost faith in the democratic system; they see advocates of transparency and equity in theory be, in practise, anything but. And now, in defense of themselves, the Political Right is actively discrediting the very institutions for which they are responsible.
Forget going over the heads of Parliament and the Governor General - it's now the police who are getting in the way of a proper conservative society. Only folk like Stephen Harper and Rob Ford can save us from the socialists, the separatists, the thugs and bureaucrats, the scientists, police and fundamentalists. Only they can stop the tide from rising.
Make no mistake - the tide will rise, literally. There will be massive storms, floods, power outages and possibly shootings or illness scares that will not be handled well by an overworked system or undermined through a combination of separate, out-sourced contractors failing to work together in a seamless effort. It'll be messy - the people will demand someone be held accountable.
If our leadership pursues the same tactics they've been using, there'll be no accountability to be had. Instead, there will be blame and partisan rhetoric. The focus will be on punishment, not solutions.
What happens when it's the institution and all the people it is seen to support that is declared public enemy #1? People look for tougher leaders than Harper to break some eggs and care less what they do to make that happen.
Politics isn't meant to be a zero-sum game. It's meant to be a conversation. When our leaders can't be bothered to commit sociology and refuse to accept that they are fallible and therefore must work with others to find common solutions, it's society itself that loses.
No comments:
Post a Comment