Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Blamin'

As I look over prog bloggers, comment threads and this and that, I see blaming from the Liberals, blaming from the Dippers, blaming from the non-aligned. Blaming on each other, blaming on the Cons, blaming on the shitty winner takes it polling system we've got in this country.

Fine. Have your "moment". But when you stop sniffling about how bad it's all going to be, you damn well better start talking to each other about what you're gonna do to set things right today, not in four years. Like it or not, the political map in this country has been redrawn. The Conservative Party under Harper is not the Conservative party of yesteryear. The Liberals are not the same, and neither are the Dippers. Spending time gazing rearward at what was or what might have been only goes so far. Look forward at what might yet become, in a year, four years, eight years, 12 years.

This will be harder for some of you than others. Some of you have built personal and political identities around what is, at the end of the day, a brand. A social construction, an imagined community. A team, side, and club; full of legacy but essentially devoid of lasting meaning.

It is time to shed your partisan allegiances. The old parties no longer exist in practice. It is time to start talking to each other about just what kind of Canada you want to build, and just how you're going to do it.

I am as disappointed as many of you at last night's result, but I also can't help feeling liberated by it. The NDP, despite of their record win, have no power in the House. The Liberals even less so, and the Bloc and Liz might as well not exist. You know what Harper will do now. You know what he'll try to turn this country into. The old order is dead and we are in transition. There is opportunity in crisis to build something new.

It is up to you whether you're going to obey that demagogue and his coterie of piss-ignorant used car salesmen. Sixty per cent of you did not vote for this man or his lunatics. It is up to you whether you see that government as legitimate.

It is up to you to choose whether to live your lives in fear of what they will do, or despite what they will do.

11 comments:

Deanna said...

Hurrah! Thank you for this post. We're going to need to see a lot more of this. Hope it spreads.

For starters, we need to know why 40% of Canada thought that the Conservatives would be a good choice.

Uncommoner said...

Thank you. That's the most positive thing I have read in almost a day.
I've never been a partisan of any of our parties. I used to vote Green more as a way of sending some funding their way and denying my vote to any of the others. I voted Liberal yesterday because the local candidate had the best chance of defeating our incumbent Conservative.

Never again. If ever I vote again, it will have to be FOR something. I've never had anyone or anything I COULD vote for. Now, in the absence, I can't help but wonder how one goes about starting their own party. It feels like we're going to have to claw our way back to a social contract all over again, and the Neo-Aristos have learned their lessons from the last time.

deBeauxOs said...

40% of Canadians who voted believe what the Contempt Party tells them because they're religious fundamentalists, they're afraid of soshalizm, they want to maintain the status quo or they're wealthy and want more. Xenophobes believe the Cons will protect from the furrin hordes and immigrants think ReformaTories will let them sponsor family members.

Push the right buttons and get supporters out to vote, it's not rocket science.

It's a pyramid scheme. Don't break the letter chain or you'll make Baby Jay-Zeus cry.

Deanna said...

deBeauxOs: Alright, if you're correct, how do we split them up?

Are there ways to disillusion the fundies, wake up rural voters, and inform the low information voters? (I think it's a given that the rich know damn well where their best interests lie.)

Beijing York said...

This is what passes as righteous indignation among many of the 40% who voted for the Contempt Party:

One Pissed off Canadian Housewife.

Thought you might like to read this letter to the editor. Ever notice how some people just seem to know how to write a letter?

This one surely does!

This was written by a Canadian woman, but oh how it also applies to the U.S.A., U.K. and Australia .

THIS ONE PACKS A FIRM PUNCH

Written by a housewife in New Brunswick , to her local newspaper. This
is one ticked off lady...

"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not, started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001 and have continually threatened to do so since?...


...And I'm supposed to care that a few Taliban were claiming to be tortured
by a justice system of a nation they are fighting against in a brutal insurgency...

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East, start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere belief of which, is a crime punishable by beheading in Afghanistan...

I'll care when the cowardly so-called 'insurgents' in Afghanistan , come out and fight like men, instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in Mosques and behind women and children.

I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana, care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I'll care when the Canadian media stops pretending that their freedom of speech on stories, is more important than the lives of the soldiers on the ground or their families waiting at home, to hear about them when something happens.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a CANADIAN soldier roughing up an Insurgent terrorist to obtain information, know this:

I don't care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank:

I don't care. Shoot him again.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed 'special' food, that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being 'mishandled,' you can absolutely
believe, in your heart of hearts:

I don't care...

If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to all your E-mail friends. Sooner or later, it'll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!...

I have another quote that I would like to share AND...I hope you forward all this.

One last thought for the day:

Only five defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The British Soldier.

3. The Canadian Soldier.

4. The US Soldier, and

5. The Australian Soldier

One died for your soul, the other four, for you and your children's freedom.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET!

AMEN! GOD BLESS CANADA AND AMERICA


This is what we're up against.

Edstock said...

Defeat is an orphan. This one has many sources.

In no particular order:

a) Iggy: great dude, but does not catch the imagination.

b) Liberal party aparatchiki complacency. I ran across some of the backroom weasels for Ken Dryden 6 months ago who thought they were wizards and in total control.

c) CO2 Cap-and-Trade fixation. Dead-cat bounce for a lot of people, who are starting to resent being scolded by the sanctimonious for energy consumption, especially when sky-rocketing prices have these people saving as they can.

d) Inept media use by non-PC's. No gawddam imagination.

@bigpicguy said...

We should talk. Check my blog http://bigpicguy.blogspot.com get my twitter @bigpicguy email is bigpicguy@hotmail.ca
For a Canada with Vision

West End Bob said...

Great post, Boris!

Especially:

It is up to you whether you're going to obey that demagogue and his coterie of piss-ignorant used car salesmen.

"PIUCS" - LOVE it!

Thanks for the first smile I've had today . . . .

Parge said...

Everybody keeps quoting the 40% thing. With a 61% voter turnout, only 24% of Canadians voted for the conservatives. Unfortunately 39% voted for none of the above - the clear winner in this election.

Zee said...

While spending a lot of time watching the online noise during this election one thing, and not the only thing, that has been annoying was the talk about strategic voting. When someone becomes a candidate for the political party that you work for at what point when helping that person move through the hoops of the official proceedings and nomination rituals do you inform them that at some point during the election we are going to throw all our support toward another candidate from another political party because you really are nothing more than a token in something like a Risk game? A political party that lets the fresh meat know about the strategy after they have been hooked isn't a political party; it's cult. And perhaps a policy of telling prospective candidates before wouldn't happen so much because such political parties do not exist.

Gloria said...

Harper in a minority was bad enough. A majority for Harper, is going to be a nightmare.

Harper once stated, we wouldn't recognize Canada, once he got through with this country. I am afraid, there will be no Canada left. Canada is being given to the wealthiest giant corporations in the world.

One day watching, the House of Commons RV channel. A motion passed to give, banks, mines, large corporations, gas and oil company's, billions of our tax dollars. They also get huge tax reductions. I was so angry, I could have spit. Our tax dollars, belong to the people, not to Harper, to feed the greedy company's.

Anyway, these will be black years for Canadians. We may wake one morning and find our country gone.