Wednesday, January 25, 2017
A Little Less Worse. Great.
I've about had it with Canadian politics. When I say that I mean I've had it with the last stop on the line, the Green Party of Canada and that goes for Ma May too.
My problem with Elizabeth May is that she's still acting as though she's building a political party that might make a difference. Sorry but the clock has run out on that whimsical idea.
May, like her BC counterpart, Andy Weaver, wants to play it safe. They don't want to risk alienating what they see as potential recruits to their self-eviscerated cause. They want to be seen as moderates. And where exactly has that got them?
I assume that they're reading the science that's been pouring in during the last few years. I have to assume they know what so many climate scientists have been screaming at the top of their lungs that there's a climate emergency underway in the Arctic, one that could literally kick off a series of events of existential dimension to human civilization. Yet they're acting as though they don't have a care in the world. They're acting as though their party's support for the BDS movement is a make it or break it issue.
My discontent surfaced this week when I got a GPC solicitation asking that I "demand" Justin Trudeau reject the Keystone XL pipeline. WTF? I replied that, if we've failed to stop Trudeau rubber stamping the Trans Canada and Energy East pipelines what possible point was there in moaning about America's KXL pipeline. I added that belonging to the Greens had come to feel like I was wishing the house might burn down a little more slowly.
Milquetoast leadership renders the Green Party irrelevant. It's a waste of my time.
Adios.
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16 comments:
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you regarding the Green Party of Canada. How disappointing they have become.
I've voted Green. I've voted Orange, Red and even blue a couple of times (protest votes that I knew would not elect a blue).
I make every voting choice based on the situation... and my mood.
I have really never voted 'with enthusiasm' for any of the candidates on offer nor would I vote on party lines.
Always the 'lesser evil'. No wonder voting turn-out continues to crater.
(Oh and who woulda thought we eventually get the 'evil lessor'.)
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O/T Sey Hersh debunks the Putin frenzy:
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/25/seymour-hersh-blasts-media-for-uncritically-promoting-russian-hacking-story/
Northern PoV, thanks for the Hersh link.
The Green Party have become irrelevant. I trust no one with my vote anymore. We're post-political now and democracy is just another propaganda tool.
It pains me to admit it but I think Al's right. That puts us in uncharted waters just as the storm is brewing.
Damn.
Hey....
" I trust no one with my vote anymore." cop out!
So I voted for selfie boy and I remain comfortable with that choice despite huge disappointment on:
C51
Pipelines
Infrastructure Bank (disguised privatization)
and lesser issues like electoral reform and pot.
Why do I think its important to vote ...
(As so much of our progress has come from court decisions)
Because of the people Liberals choose for the courts vs the people CONs choose for the courts.
Have a look at SCOC Justice Brown, appointed as the last act of the dying Harper regime, if you want to get my drift
.. Better people than me have tried to either validate, explain or extoll the Greens.. but can say the same re the NDP, Even the Liberals.. The ConSwervaTories of course have battering ram partisans.. lacking a shred of reality. That leaves me the Rhino Party, & the Pirates aka the Indy Bloggers. Oh there's a few journos I might trust, but not many and they too are being forced into Indy Journalism.
Often when peeps who see me as an unholy cynic ask who I do believe in, if anyone.. I point them to my patron saints, exemplars all. W. Eugene Smith who inspired me in my freelance photography career, Hunter S Thompson re my writing career, Elmore Leonard of course of course, Marshall McLuhan for making me aware of media & how irresponsible it could be, Tom Wolfe.. and of course our Canadian artists.. whether poets, musicians, writers or painters.. like Emily Carr or the simple wonder of Tom Thompson
So when I measure Canadian politicians.. unfortunately, they are held to impossible standards.. but so what? This is Canada eh.. and we expect giants.. not pitiful losers & screetchers.. who swing like a weather vane. Ms May is a bright bright lady.. but Canada might now most benefit if she threw any remaining weight behind exemplars like Alicia Morton or Damien Gillis, or Jessica Ernst, or The Grassy Narrows victims, or the east coast fishing industry. There are so many good causes out there.. it seems a shame to contest lost causes.. and in my view, Canadians need to wake up to the reality, that our governenments.. and most certainly our political parties, are lost causes, wandering in partisan dreamland.. They certainly have no inkling of what 'public servant' means or requires
Northern - For the propaganda of democracy to be effective it requires that you keep that trust no matter how many times you are disappointed. The process has been captured - the house will always win.
The problem with politics , in the Western world, is that we have been brainwashed into heading for middle ground in the hope everyone will be pacified.
Depending upon your age or your historical knowledge of politics most people don't realise that the old centre! has moved dramatically to the far right.
This move leaves left wingers!! promoting neocon objectives.
TB
The Dippers will save us!! They're prepared to wage 'nuclear war' if Trudeau follows through on his promise of electoral form enabling them to potentially win elections.
These sad sacks can't have that! Their plan is to lose their way to success. The more they lose, the more they screw up, the more they bumble and fumble, the closer they are to fulfilling their master plan!
Now I can see why the Mound hates the NDP. What's not to hate?
TB, you're entirely right. The centre, our political keel, is in a far right list. Today's Democrats are Reagan Republicans. Today's Liberals are no further left than Mulroney's Conservatives and sometimes well to the right.
US pundit, David Gergen, explained why he abandoned the Republicans. He said one day he realized that the president for whom he'd worked, Richard Nixon, wouldn't stand a chance of winning that party's leadership for he was much too left.
Many Liberal supporters like to think of themselves as centre left but that's an illusion. They're mainstream conservatives, all trace of liberalism having been expunged from their party years ago. What galls me is when they claim the progressive mantle while supporting parties that reject progressivism. Progressive doesn't mean slightly to the left of whatever far right wing party pretends to be Conservative.
It's a dark farce.
Anon, try a pot of black coffee.
May was one of the few politicians willing to stand up to Stephen Harper. When she got a chance to speak in the House, she was often impressive. But I have to agree with Mound, her leadership is not what it was. The party has backed away from core justice principles to appease the unholy alliance of Zionists and evangelicals that elected Harper. And it's now retreating from its raison d'être - the environment - to appease Albertans in the pay of the oil and gas industry.
May, like Trudeau and Mulcair, has become just another politician willing to lie about what they would do, then fail to deliver. Voters faced with repeated lies and the ensuing disappointment eventually get so fed up they're willing to elect a buffoon like Trump or O'Leary to shake things up. This is why we should be very concerned with Trudeau's failures on electoral reform, the rollback of C-41 and Paris Accord compliance. These are all core promises that he's either abandoned or gone so half-ass on that he's broken the spirit of his promise.
Cap
Oddly May had more power when she wasn't primarily concerned with gaining power. That seems to be all political parties exist for. If only the behaviour of political powers could be regulated, we might get better government. It has come to the point that political parties are harming our democracy.
There's a common concern here that our political caste is putting partisan political advantage, self-interest, squarely ahead of the nation and people they were elected to serve. We've seen it in the NDP when they chose to migrate to the political centre/centre right in quest of power, leaving the left undefended. We've seen it in our current prime minister who wasted little time dashing our hopes and breaking his promises as he morphed into something eerily similar to his predecessor. We're seeing it in the Greens where the BDS movement managed to send May into undeclared retirement.
Neoliberalism is a powerful and corruptive ideology. It's an instrument that always seems to lead to a wedge between the elected and those who elect them to office. It manifests in first, political capture, where the elected are primarily working for special interests, followed by regulatory capture, where the elected appoint representatives of the special interests they serve to steer regulatory agencies.
I have pretty well given up on politics and politicians, Mound. Having said that, I will still always exercise my right to vote as it allows me to complain - sometimes incessantly - about what I particularly despise in all of them. I watched Adrian Dix allow that nit-wit Clark to frame not only who he was but what his party stood for. I watched Mulcair, an excellent debater in Parliament and leader of the Opposition focus solely on Trudeau, leader of a party with barely 3rd status, instead of taking Harper and his ReformaCons to task for their misdeeds and shake my head in disbelief at the stupidity of it all.
I am retired now and hope that my partner and I have saved enough to take care of ourselves in the future, although senior care and its costs and level of care are both scary propositions. In self defence I have basically opted out of society, only worry about myself and my family (isn't that what politicians are all about?) and keep the cost of basic living requirements to a minimum. Bottom line: I hope I am contributing as little as possible to the economy and the corporations and their CEOs who reap such monumental benefits on the backs of ordinary citizens here in Canada. Thanks for letting me rant!
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