Sunday, April 14, 2013
Tommy, We Have to Talk
Dear Tommy:
I've got some bad news. The old gang has moved on. They've "modernized" some, taken a new direction if you will.
Now, rest assured Tom, no one's saying that everything the party you created once stood for is radical nonsense. At least none of them are saying that out loud although some certainly are acting that way.
They've figured out the route to get elected, their one slim chance at power, meant they'd have to grow up some. They'd have to become sophisticated, moderate - pragmatic if you will. Compromise is the order of the day and you know what a slippery slope that is for people of high principle.
Today, Tom, it's like three guys, a Liberal, a Conservative and a New Democrat (for want of a better name), each of them with the Green Apple Two-Step, competing for a single-seat outhouse. It doesn't really matter to anyone but them who gets there first, the output will be pretty much indistinguishable. Oh, they'll argue about whose smells the worst but, really, it's all the same.
You might be wondering, Tom, just who is holding down the Left in Canada after all this? Actually, nobody. Everybody wants to be in the centre today, that's where the action is. That's how you get elected to form a government.
It might seem like they're not New Democrats any more but something more like Latter Day Liberals. Sure, fair enough. But don't forget it was the Liberals who shed their skin first to become Conservative-Lites.
Consider it the price of progress, Tommy. Sure it's sad the progression has been steadily to the Right where Steve Harper has wanted it long before he even became prime minister. But that's today's Canada, one big lump of political greyness. Andrew Coyne calls it "a politics drained of any remaining differences between the parties, or indeed ideas of any kind."
Previously, party leaders were obliged to pretend to believe in policies before they could abandon them: now that first stage has been eliminated, freeing them to focus on slandering each other’s character and passing out baby pictures of themselves.
So, it's not you, Tommy Douglas, it's the times and, sure, it's that new Tom, the ex-Liberal from Quebec who's now an Ottawa liberal running your old party. Some wise scribe coined a term for this sort of thing recently. He called it the "endarkenment."
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11 comments:
Mound, a request.
Please do post the response from Tommy. He is resting no longer in peace after this note from you.
I didn't start really paying attention until MacKay gave the Conservative label to the reforms, so I don't know how far back it started, but the parties ceased to have meaning for me then. Provincially, when the Socreds, who were about as unliberal as can be imagined took over the Liberal label, I began watching the doublespeak. Its everywhere now, and I have begun to read mainstream news inside out. I expect that the opposite of what comes out of nearly every politicians mouth is more true.
With my tongue firmly in my cheek, I sometimes think the world might be more like that scene in Men In Black, where Tommy Lee Jones tells Will Smith that the real news is in the Enquirer.
I like that, Karen, thanks. I never supported the NDP but I came to appreciate them when I got to spend some time with David Lewis in the mid-70's. After that I always took comfort in knowing they were anchoring the Left and always willing to stand on principle. They didn't have to win an election to contribute great service to the Canadian people and our country. Simply being the conscience of parliament was invaluable to Canadians.
I'm sure Tommy and David are spinning in their graves, Mound. And David's son Stephen isn't too happy either.
I would expect Stephen Lewis isn't one bit happy about this, Owen. Has he actually spoken out? If he has, I don't recall.
The NDP abandoned their principles under Layton.
This is only the formalizing of the whoredom.
If all three parties are running to the centre, the voters will vote for who they like the best. If that happens, (and Justin Trudeau is still a likeable fellow after the Conservative attack machine is done with him) we will probably end up with a Liberal government after the next campaign. From there, all the centrists, and those who are only concerned with power will concentrate themselves in the Liberal Party, leaving the NDP (and the Conservatives) to their ideologues. The campaign after the next one, will be the campaign where we see three distinct ideologies from three very different parties. That is the campaign that I am most looking forward to, since I very much enjoy a battle of ideas.
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