This week’s column: it’s our democracy, not yours, you bastards

— 12.12.2016 10:59 AM

To whom does democracy belong?

Its parentage is uncertain. As with “values” – about which the Lilliputian Kellie Leitch arrogantly claims to be the final arbiter – “democracy” gets invoked by politicians all the time. They insinuate that democracy, and the values that make up a democracy, are known to them and them alone.

But democracy, as clichéd as it may be, belongs to the people. The politicians apparently need to be reminded of that, these days.

Last year, of course, the Liberal Party of Canada offered up high-sounding promises about democracy in its election platform. Tucked in there were four vague sentences about electoral reform. The platform solemnly promised that Canada would never again conduct an election under the so-called “first past the post system.”

The promise was designed to suck in New Democrat voters, and it worked smashingly. New Democrats always believe that they lose elections because the system is at fault, and not them. So Dippers stampeded over to Justin Trudeau.

The paradox, historians will note, is that the Liberal Party never expected to be lifted from a distant rump in the House of Commons to a commanding first place, and a huge majority government. They, like everyone else, thought they would hold Stephen Harper to a minority, and then take back government in 2017 or 2018. Thus, their platform was chock-full of promises they never, ever expected to keep: deficits of no more than $10 billion, revenue neutral tax breaks, fighter jet procurement, restore door-to-door home mail delivery, revolutionizing C-51, and – as noted – comprehensive electoral reform. And so on.

A year later, the electoral reform promise is in shambles. And, when you think about it, the “democratic reform” file has been an utter fiasco from the earliest days. From those four oblique sentences in the Liberal Party platform (promising bold change but not saying what the bold change would be), to now, when the whole thing has spiraled downward into Twitter hashtag farce (there are some really good ones, too!): it’s been a disaster, from start to finish.

The minister responsible, Maryam Monsef, bears responsibility for some of that. Monsef did herself no favours by criticizing the work of an all-party committee into the issue – or by sounding less-than-candid when some conservative conspiracy theorists earlier cooked up a racist “birther” narrative to destroy her and her policy.

But she has also been subjected to more abuse and derision than any cabinet minister since Bev Oda, she of the $16 orange juice fame. This writer’s strong suspicion is that the hostility and hatred that Monsef has endured (as with Oda) possibly had something to do with (a) her gender and (b) her race. We’ll never know that for sure, of course, but (as with Oda) Monsef’s coming punishment seems to be far, far out of proportion to the offence.

There is plenty of blame to go around, however. Personally, this space is unimpressed with all of the combatants in what has become a hellacious mud-wrestling match. There is much to oppose, if you are a sensible person.

You should oppose the “referendum solves everything” approach – favoured by Conservatives and separatists – because we still don’t know what the question would be. (And, irony of ironies, what kind of referendum would it be? Fifty per cent plus one? Two-thirds? Ranked ballot style? )

You should be against the New Democrat approach, which is proportional representation by stealth. They want that system because it guarantees them seats, even when they run a crappy election campaign, which is something they do with impressive regularity. For Dippers, proportional representation is like an electoral pension plan without end.

You should also be against the Liberal approach, which is to tinker with democracy for no apparent reason whatsoever. It may be imperfect, per Churchill, but our system of electing and governing is a Hell of a lot better than all of the alternatives, isn’t it? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, etc. To wit: before now, was anyone standing around the water coolers of the nation, saying: “God almighty, I didn’t sleep again last night because our elected representatives are insufficiently informed about the Gallagher Index!”

Enough time has been wasted on this file, politicians. Donald Trump is bringing the world towards the brink of some sort of a war with China, and this is all you have to worry about?

Get a life. It’s our democracy, not yours, you solipsistic, self-interested egomaniacs.

 


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Trump Reich: the beast is awake

— 12.11.2016 09:27 AM

News coming on my new book soon. In the meantime, here’s a link and a snippet from the New York Times huge feature on Trump’s neo-Nazi fans in this morning’s paper. 

The deceptively benign phrase “alt-right” now peppers the national conversation, often in ways that play down its fundamental beliefs, which have long been considered intolerant and hateful. The term’s recent prevalence corresponds with the rise of President-elect Donald J. Trump; alt-right leaders say his inflammatory statements and Twitter habits in the campaign energized, even validated, their movement.

 


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Glen Greenwald is Putin’s useful idiot

— 12.10.2016 08:29 AM

To recap: U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed that Putin’s regime interfered in the U.S. election (to destroy Clinton) – and held onto some of what they found (ro blackmail Trump).  It’s been in all the papers.

I comment on it on Twitter.


I see the online Glen Greenwald, once a journalist but now a shill for every anti-Clinton cause, furiously defending Putin’s covert campaign. So I remark on what I think of him now.


The former journalist notices and responds with this:


I respond:


So, Greenwald then comes up with this:


Tellingly, a Canadian extremist who I blocked long ago becomes one of Greenwald’s sources in this Twitter exchange. She tells him I ran a campaign against Rob Ford. Here’s what he says next about Yours Truly:


This is kind of typical of the tire fire that is now Glen Greenwald’s journalism. To wit: (a) I didn’t run anyone’s campaign against Rob Ford and (b) Rob Ford wasn’t even on the ballot in the campaign Greenwald is referring to. Greenwald, as is so often the case, makes a couple big factual errors. So, I say:


He doesn’t know what to say about his errors, apparently.

So, I return to his “evil imbecile” insult.


Anyway. Various trolls came into it after that, I got bored, and I had to let the dogs out.

There’s a point to all of this: Glen Greenwald, and those like him, became micro-celebrities by promoting their heroes Snowden, Assange, et al. They came to despise the Obama-Clinton folks for their objections to the law-breaking of Snowden, Assange et al. And, in the depths of their hatred, they became (like the Republican Party) apologists for Vladimir Putin, who (we now know) was running the whole show back in Moscow, and laughing his ass off.

The point: American democracy has been compromised, and Donald Trump is to blame for that. And American journalism has been compromised, too – and Glen Greenwald and his ilk are to blame for that.


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Trump Virus: now in Kelowna

— 12.09.2016 11:30 AM

…my wife’s former town. Got a lot of friends there, too.

From Kelowna Now: “Some students at the UBC Okanagan campus in Kelowna were shocked to find pro-white posters telling readers to abandon political correctness and multiculturalism and free themselves of “white guilt.”



ubco-poster


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