tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post3410112946266442117..comments2024-03-22T05:20:44.167-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: The Mess We're InThe Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-88094518385628839622013-09-22T01:22:39.120-07:002013-09-22T01:22:39.120-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-42718099018651708832011-07-02T09:18:59.527-07:002011-07-02T09:18:59.527-07:00I guess we've had peace and prosperity for so ...I guess we've had peace and prosperity for so long that our political classes are incapable of grasping the sort of leadership required in times of emergency or national peril.<br /><br />It is one thing to follow shifting public attitudes in setting welfare rates but quite another thing altogether to look to public whim when your land is being attacked by a foreign power - or nature itself. In these situations it is no longer fitting that political leadership languishes behind the public nor that it poll the public to shape policy.<br /><br />We grant these people enormous power over our lives, our communities, our nation and implicit in vesting those powers in our leaders is their undertaking to use those powers as need be for our welfare and protection. <br /><br />This undertaking is not discretionary. If the nation or our people need protection our leadership is obliged to act accordingly to the full measure of the powers they hold on our collective behalf.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-72477958407453992012011-07-02T08:19:22.616-07:002011-07-02T08:19:22.616-07:00I have yet to see a poll in which tax rebates rank...I have yet to see a poll in which tax rebates rank at the top of a list of issues when voters are asked to name their concerns. The reason they ascend to the top of political debate is because they're a useful bit of blather for politicians to talk about when they have no other agenda of actual substance, or when they do have an agenda but think it would be unpopular.<br /><br />I am reminded of a kneejerk reaction from the bumbling Jim Hacker in Yes, Minister: "I am the people's leader. I must follow them!"Sixth Estatehttp://sixthestate.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-16359171997559929982011-07-01T07:33:54.561-07:002011-07-01T07:33:54.561-07:00@GF - your take on the neo-Cons duplicity is spot ...@GF - your take on the neo-Cons duplicity is spot on. What troubles me is why Layton and Rae don't gore them with it? It is surely a case where their silence, no matter how grounded in reluctance, amounts to collaboration.<br /><br />@CK - at the time, Nixon was a hard-core, bad-ass, far Right Republican. Today he would be tossed out of the GOP as a "socialist."<br /><br />Yes he was an arrogant bastard with criminal leanings but, in fairness, he also did several genuinely good things. He got America out of Vietnam. Nixon recognized China and normalized relations between those countries. Most telling, however, is that Nixon advanced the civil rights reforms initiated by his predecessors, Kennedy and Johnson. So I'm not willing to take Nixon for more or less than he truly was and, on the point cited, he was genuinely inspirational.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-85013151807319120622011-06-30T21:04:07.929-07:002011-06-30T21:04:07.929-07:00I don't much buy the argument about voters not...I don't much buy the argument about voters not caring about issues like climate change. And I don't think any of the political parties do either. <br /><br />Even as the Cons fail to do anything about climate change by any reasonable standard, they refuse to defend the position that nothing <i>should</i> be done. Instead, they make occasional noises (particularly during campaigns) pretending to be doing more than they are - and lower-information voters who can't cut through the competing claims of the various parties thus don't differentiate enough between their options to vote based on the issue.<br /><br />So the problem isn't one of a willingness to sell future generations down the river, but a need to make more clear how it can be avoided - in the face of a government prepared to use every dime of public money at its disposal necessary to claim otherwise.Greg Fingashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01506686081291502115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-52016900011283484152011-06-30T20:39:04.795-07:002011-06-30T20:39:04.795-07:00Do you really think invoking Nixon is a good idea?...Do you really think invoking Nixon is a good idea? He of Watergate? <br /><br />Most of what he did was certainly not good for the country.ckhttp://sistersagesmusings.canoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-16593594694101846652011-06-30T20:33:44.261-07:002011-06-30T20:33:44.261-07:00It looks like even Green Elizabeth May will be con...It looks like even Green Elizabeth May will be concentrating less on climate change during her time in parliament as well. <br /><br />http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1005023--may-to-focus-on-democracy-not-climate-change?bn=1#article<br /><br />While Democracy or lack thereof is an admirable issue to focus on, she is kind of taking away the raison d'etre of her own party, imho.ckhttp://sistersagesmusings.canoreply@blogger.com