Warren — Musings —09.03.2011 06:46 PM
One need only look south of the border to see how the once-proud Republican Party has been dragged down by Tea Party insurgents. Behind the scenes in Ontario, the PCs have been fighting a rearguard battle of their own with a rural rump known as the Ontario Landowners Association.
Its roughly 15,000 members have tied the Tories up in knots over the past decade with their libertarian crusade. Leery of the split between the old federal PCs and Reform Party, Ontario’s Tories tried to learn the lesson of reunification from Stephen Harper — by making peace with their fellow travellers on the fringe.
Now, without unity of purpose, the two sides are stuck in a miserable marriage of convenience for the sake of the kids. You can hear the plates smashing and the pots flying.
Eves lashed out “at those few individuals who decided that the Tea Party version of Ontario politics would be good in that particular riding.
“And I don’t happen to agree with that,” he told a radio audience last week.
He was referring to the Eastern Ontario seat long held by former Tory cabinet minister Norm Sterling, who was toppled in a bitterly-contested nomination battle by ex-Landowners chief Jack MacLaren.
“The treatment that Norm got from his own (PC) party was not very polite, was not fair, it was not loyal, it was not compassionate,” Eves told party loyalists last month.
What do you mean “the Ontario PCs aren’t progressive ANYMORE”? when exactly were they the least bit progressive to begin with? In the early 80s under Bill Davis??? This is the party that gave us Mike Harris to begin with – its hard to be more rightwing than that.
The “once-proud” Republican Party?
That’s the “once-proud” party that has more seats in Congress than at any time since Harry Truman was president?
And still with all those congressmen/women they can’t seem to offer anything constructive.
Pride is not the same as winning. Your inability to tell the difference says a lot.
Politics isn’t a combat sport, I’m not sure why “winning” is the only goal.
Pride comes from constructively offering ideas and/or alternatives as a public leader so that society can grow. Winning means you convinced enough people to give you a job.
Let’s look at Ford. Sure, he “won” the election with sloganeering and script-memorization, but does he have anything to be proud of now? His approval rating has been almost halved in less than a year. Seems to most people that his ideas to become mayor stopped at winning the election.
Isn’t the Tea-bag Conservative platform book “Changebook” like a magical word changing book in a Harry Potter movie? The words move around on a page.
“Timmy-ti-hee, get rid of the Harmonized Sales Tax. Replacity-taecity with the new improved Hudak Sales Tax!”