Our Perilous Democracy
Stephen Harper is known as a neo-conservative. In the motley realm of right-winginess, a neo-con is as far right as you can go without being a fascist. These folks believe, among other things, that corporations should be unfettered by regulatory agencies, leaving them to police themselves, assuring us that the free market will take care of any problems that might arise.
It doesn't exactly work that way. We have lately seen the result of deregulation in the U.S. banking industry, practically bringing that proud nation to its knees. Our own food industry has been lax in policing itself, witness the listeria outbreak. The Chinese have 35,000 sick babies on their hands due to pollution of milk. It is ironic therefore that as the Americans are about to turf their neo-cons, we are about to elect ours.
I wouldn't want to live in my town if there were no police. Cops don't always give us a warm and fuzzy feeling, but we need them. In the same way, industries have to be policed, despite the neo-cons's rants about fat-laden bureaucracies and big government. The only agencies that can adequately police the various industries are government appointed ones. Are not governments supposed to look after our interests?
In the current electoral campaign, the Conservatives are slamming the Liberals hard. The American-style attack ads portray Stéphan Dion as a weak leader, feature unflattering photos of him. By contrast, Harper is strong and decisive. (So was Hitler.) Dion's carbon tax/green shift/income tax cut is portrayed by Harper as "insane". He called it the Green Shaft; now there's an intellectual gem! Not only environmentalists but eminent economists approve of Dion's policy. The problem is that it's too complicated for the average voter to understand, and if they think about it at all, it's "I'll pay dearly for my heating oil this winter but when will I get my income tax rebate?" You can't blame the voter for being cynical. And then there are the deliberate lies. The Liberals are "cheering for a recession". Come on! Do the Conservatives really think that others are as blatantly unconscionable as themselves? The Liberals will "produce a $12B deficit". Oh? Where are the numbers? The Chrétien/Martin governments left a healthy surplus which has been largely eroded by Harper. Dion will "eliminate the child benefit". Dion has said no such thing, in fact he would double it for low-income families. The Liberals would "hike the GST". Another lie. In a July interview, Dion said flatly he would not consider such a move. The problem with blatant lies is that they get the headlines; the corrections don't. Harper knows this. Then there are the broken promises. There is the fixed election date policy reversal, although I can't get too exited about that. He used the excuse that parliament wasn't working, so an election was needed. He then went on to say that he expected another minority! That was hardly honest. Why call an election then? Would another minority fix a broken parliament? The broken promise on income trusts blew a hole in the nest egg of many pensioners. Will they forget?
Harper appears to care nothing about the environment; he'd lose support in Alberta if he did, but not enough to really hurt him. His Afghanistan policy is hopeless; that country will never change. That it will morph into a western style democracy is too ridiculous to contemplate. True, Al-Qaeda is a menace, but we could defeat them a dozen times and they'd come back, such is the nature of religious fanaticism. There has to be some sort of dialogue with these people or their surrogates; they do, after all, have legitimate gripes.
I could go on and on, but to little purpose really. Harper is a brilliant strategist and barring an unforeseen major event, he should sail through to his majority. His sleazy campaign, his belief in the simple message (simplistic is even better) will carry him through. We'll later regret our decision, as we regretted Mulroney, as we regretted Diefenbaker, not to mention R.B. Bennet of Dirty Thirties fame. In each case, the Liberals came back to right the ship. There's always hope.
It doesn't exactly work that way. We have lately seen the result of deregulation in the U.S. banking industry, practically bringing that proud nation to its knees. Our own food industry has been lax in policing itself, witness the listeria outbreak. The Chinese have 35,000 sick babies on their hands due to pollution of milk. It is ironic therefore that as the Americans are about to turf their neo-cons, we are about to elect ours.
I wouldn't want to live in my town if there were no police. Cops don't always give us a warm and fuzzy feeling, but we need them. In the same way, industries have to be policed, despite the neo-cons's rants about fat-laden bureaucracies and big government. The only agencies that can adequately police the various industries are government appointed ones. Are not governments supposed to look after our interests?
In the current electoral campaign, the Conservatives are slamming the Liberals hard. The American-style attack ads portray Stéphan Dion as a weak leader, feature unflattering photos of him. By contrast, Harper is strong and decisive. (So was Hitler.) Dion's carbon tax/green shift/income tax cut is portrayed by Harper as "insane". He called it the Green Shaft; now there's an intellectual gem! Not only environmentalists but eminent economists approve of Dion's policy. The problem is that it's too complicated for the average voter to understand, and if they think about it at all, it's "I'll pay dearly for my heating oil this winter but when will I get my income tax rebate?" You can't blame the voter for being cynical. And then there are the deliberate lies. The Liberals are "cheering for a recession". Come on! Do the Conservatives really think that others are as blatantly unconscionable as themselves? The Liberals will "produce a $12B deficit". Oh? Where are the numbers? The Chrétien/Martin governments left a healthy surplus which has been largely eroded by Harper. Dion will "eliminate the child benefit". Dion has said no such thing, in fact he would double it for low-income families. The Liberals would "hike the GST". Another lie. In a July interview, Dion said flatly he would not consider such a move. The problem with blatant lies is that they get the headlines; the corrections don't. Harper knows this. Then there are the broken promises. There is the fixed election date policy reversal, although I can't get too exited about that. He used the excuse that parliament wasn't working, so an election was needed. He then went on to say that he expected another minority! That was hardly honest. Why call an election then? Would another minority fix a broken parliament? The broken promise on income trusts blew a hole in the nest egg of many pensioners. Will they forget?
Harper appears to care nothing about the environment; he'd lose support in Alberta if he did, but not enough to really hurt him. His Afghanistan policy is hopeless; that country will never change. That it will morph into a western style democracy is too ridiculous to contemplate. True, Al-Qaeda is a menace, but we could defeat them a dozen times and they'd come back, such is the nature of religious fanaticism. There has to be some sort of dialogue with these people or their surrogates; they do, after all, have legitimate gripes.
I could go on and on, but to little purpose really. Harper is a brilliant strategist and barring an unforeseen major event, he should sail through to his majority. His sleazy campaign, his belief in the simple message (simplistic is even better) will carry him through. We'll later regret our decision, as we regretted Mulroney, as we regretted Diefenbaker, not to mention R.B. Bennet of Dirty Thirties fame. In each case, the Liberals came back to right the ship. There's always hope.
posted by puzzled @ 9:57 PM
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