Categories for Musings

Trudeau vs. The Alternatives

— 05.16.2017 08:01 AM

So, Jagmeet, whose candidacy I invented, is in.  One of my Daisy colleagues was there last night, and said the announcement was awesome.

And Mad Max looks to be the guy to beat.  Tories I know say he’s gong to win.

So, how will both stack up against Trudeau?  If we were to do polling – and to do focus groups from sea to sea to sea, as it were – what would voters say are the key attributes of (a) Trudeau and then (b) Bernier and (c) Jagmeet?

Trudeau Attributes

  • Young and youthful
  • Unconvential
  • Not-bad-looking
  • Bilingual
  • Passionate
  • Idealistic

Bernier Attributes

  • Young and youthful
  • Unconvential
  • Not-bad-looking
  • Bilingual
  • Passionate
  • Idealistic

Jagmeet Attributes

  • Young and youthful
  • Unconvential
  • Not-bad-looking
  • Bilingual
  • Passionate
  • Idealistic

See the problem?  I hereby and herewith predict Trudeau is going to be facing off in 2018 with two guys who have the very positives that propelled Trudeau himself to power in 2015.  The two angry old guys he defeated in that contest are gone, baby, gone.  It’s a new day, etc.

Sure, Mad Max can be a nutty libertarian – but the prospect of power will smooth out those rough edges, I expect.  And, sure, Jagmeet wears a turban and that may be a problem in Quebec (as some ex-Layton folks have been shamefully whispering here and there) – but, then again, progressives never do particularly well when pandering to prejudice.

What does this all mean?  Well, it means this: when leadership attributes are a wash, all that you have are (a) ideas (b) achievements and (c) ground game.

Trudeau better get going on all three.  There’s two youthful, unconventional, handsome, bilingual, passionate and idealistic guys in his rear-view mirror.

And they’re getting closer.


Comments (13)

Onward, with Hillary

— 05.15.2017 03:31 PM

Just got this:
Screen Shot 2017-05-15 at 4.28.56 PM

Warren —

Over the last few months, we’ve seen something remarkable:

From the Women’s March to airports across the country where communities are welcoming immigrants and refugees to town hall meetings in every community, Americans are speaking out like never before.

I believe more fiercely than ever that citizen engagement at every level is central to a strong and vibrant democracy.

To support this wave of grassroots organizing, we’re launching Onward Together, an organization dedicated to advancing the progressive vision that earned nearly 66 million votes in the last election. Onward Together will work to build a brighter future for generations to come by supporting groups that encourage people to organize and run for office. I’m so grateful to everyone who has reached out to say that you’re still fighting for the values we share. Will you add your name to let me know you’re with us?

Since November, I’ve been doing my fair share of reflecting, spending time with friends and family — and yes, going for long walks in the woods.

I’ve been particularly inspired by everyone who has stepped up to lead in this crucial moment for our country, and so I’m proud to announce Onward Together is beginning by supporting five groups leading the way.

At Swing Left, experts from the tech, media, finance, nonprofit, and arts industries are working to take back the House in 2018 by mobilizing volunteers in swing districts, where votes will count the most. The team atEmerge America has doubled down on finding, inspiring, and training their most diverse slate of Democratic women yet to run for office and start to close the political ambition gap. With more than one million members, Color Of Change leads national accountability campaigns to fight for criminal justice reform, voter freedom, fairness and accuracy in the media, and other critical issues of racial justice. Hundreds of thousands of people have made their voices heard thanks to Indivisible, an effort led by former Congressional staffers who are using their expertise to help ordinary people reach their members of Congress. And since two former campaigners announced the creation of Run for Something on Inauguration Day, more than 9,000 young people have signed up to run for local office to make real change in their own communities.

In some cases, we’ll provide direct funding to these organizations. For others, we’ll help amplify their work and do what we can to help them continue to grow their audiences and expand their reach.

If you’re committed to standing up for a fairer, more inclusive America, add your name to join us right now. We’ll be in touch about how you can support these groups and more like them. There’s no time to waste.

The challenges we face as a country are real. But there’s no telling what we can achieve if we approach the fights ahead with the passion and determination we feel today, and carry that energy into 2017, 2018, 2020, and beyond.

Onward!

Hillary   


Comments (10)

This week’s column: the politics of resentment

— 05.15.2017 02:24 PM

The guests at the event at the Royal Canadian Military Institute, just down University Avenue from the barricaded U.S. Consulate, were buzzing. Not about Christy Clark’s extraordinary comeback win in BC, so much, or the restive Ontario Liberal caucus.

About Donald Trump, naturally. That’s all anyone talks about at political gatherings, these days. Trump, Trump, Trump.

The latest: Trump had fired anyone securing evidence about the connections between Russia and his campaign – and then he and his cabal were insisting there was no evidence. He was clearly gutting the rule of law, by obstructing justice and covering-up. He was a clown show, a circus act, a crook, descending ever-downward into Hamlet-like madness.

And those were just the nice things being said about him, this night. In attendance: the dean of the Prime Ministers (John Turner), an admired former Premier (Dalton McGuinty), several respected cabinet ministers, current and former (Sandra Pupatello, Bob Chiarelli, Jim Bradley), and one quite impressive mayor (Bonnie Crombie). And lots of political hacks, shaking their heads about the Unpresident.

Beneath all the military decorations on the walls, beneath two Victoria Crosses – the highest award in the Commonwealth, awarded to men who (unlike the draft-dodging Donald Trump) had shown gallantry in the face of the enemy, instead of coddling the enemy (like the Putin-loving Donald Trump) – we had assembled to listen to McGuinty’s friend, Justin Gest.

Gest is an interesting fellow. Born and raised in Los Angeles inner city – by a Holocaust survivor and rural Georgian – Professor Gest has gone on to be perhaps one of the leading experts in the United States on immigration and, lately, the white working class. And, notably, how the white working class came together to shatter the liberal democratic consensus, and make Brexit and Trump happen.

His new book is The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality. It is the product of literally hundreds of interviews with white working-class folks in post-industrial London, England, and Ohio, USA. His resulting thesis: the white working poor are rational, but also now radical. They have been traumatized by the loss of jobs, by the loss of control and – most of all – by the loss of how things used to be. “Nostalgia,” Gest says, as he is interviewed by former Globe and Mail star Jane Taber. “They yearn for how things used to be.”

The white working class – who wanted Britain out of the European Union, and who wanted Donald Trump in the White House – truly want to “Make America (or Britain) Great Again,” Gest says. Trump’s slogan wouldn’t have worked if it had been “Make America Great,” he says. The white working class want to go back to what they think once was.

Says Gest, as his decidedly non-white-working-class audience listen: “White working-class people were once largely in the centre of the political world. Their votes were coveted by both political parties and their voices seemed to matter. Now, they see themselves as politically alienated and, in some cases, vilified — and this is in a country they once defined.” He pauses. “It’s this sense of loss that motivates so much of their frustration and so much of the politics we’re seeing right now. They are consumed by nostalgia.”

And Trump panders to that. He offers a return to a shimmering, golden time where everyone had a job, children listened to their elders, and there was structure and order. It doesn’t matter that things were never truly like that, says Gest. Trump’s white working class army are simply satisfied that one of their own – an outsider, like them – was able to run and win. To them, that is enough.

Like this writer, Gest agrees that the pointy-headed elites will not be saved by some Democratic Party St. George, riding a white steed – bearing Articles of Impeachment – and intent on slaying the twin-headed dragon of Trump and Putin. What we need to do, instead, is make the white working class feel like they matter. To render them visible. Because they think they are invisible.

Will we be able to do that? Will we ever be able to satisfy the raging, seething, resentful white working class?

Even Justin Gest – and the coterie of a Prime Minister, a Premier, some cabinet ministers and some political strategists – don’t know the answer to that one.

But we’d better find it, and fast.


Comments (3)