As a dual citizen, I have a heartfelt perspective from both sides. As an US citizen, I feel a complete abandonment of American leadership in the world with respect to decency, democracy, and rule of law. It’s been abandoned in an instant. Americans willing,y chose to abandon those values. As a Canadian, I fear the successful Trumpism political strategy of lies, grievance, isolation, bigotry, and conspiracy will take a firmer grip and similarly erode our own values and leadership in the world.
It’s impossible to deny that Danielle Smith takes her cues from Fox News, Trump, and the Republican party. Lies, grievance, isolation, bigotry and conspiracy….. It’s all very undeniably familiar. She will be now emboldened to go further and without any shame. All while propping herself up with a preposterously contrived 91.5% support level that would make any authoritarian proud.
I expect Trudeau will be trounced in the upcoming election. And in any sane world it will be deserved. But I truly worry about what we will vote to replace him with.
We are currently presented with an alternative that looks far different than what that same alternative looked like in the last two elections. We should be demanding better than simply “not Trudeau”.
Thanks Dave. Keep writing about provincial politics. World changing events and their undoing have their origins at local levels. And now more than ever independent journalism and independent voices are needed and need to be supported.
I for one am not going to be kind to MAGA or their Canadian Wannabes. These are the Stupid Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned about in his writing On Stupidity. "Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice." They are an existential threat to western liberal democracy. And given the bizarre policies overwhelmingly embraced at the recent UCP AGM, a threat to actual survival. Their self-delusion borders on the need to be medicated. The obsession MAGA and their Canadian Wannabes have with transgender people is weird and unhealthy. The only explanation is they need some group to hate in order to survive.
This is no time for "Sunny Ways". There is no political campaign strategy that can overcome stupid. It is time to act like Canadian democracy is on what Sun Tzu in the Art Of War calls "death ground" because it is. (As an aside, this book was recommended reading by business schools.) Maybe political parties are not the most effective way to mitigate stupid. Maybe a new dynamic will emerge.
The US election has ushered in Bro culture - TechBros, CryptoBros, TheoBros, PodcastBros like the elderly Bro Joe Rogan. Like any well played Bait and Switch grift, this US election is very shortly going to become the Vance and Heritage Foundation presidency. The Heritage Foundation on their website was accepting names from people who were interested in applying for jobs in the US federal government. Project 2025 is The Conservative Promise. Is this the plan Canadian conservative parties have for Canada's future? Could there be some introspection on the part of those claiming they are conservative to realize traditional conservatism and its values are now gone, consumed by stupid and the predators who manipulate them.
Neoliberalism came into vogue thru Reaganomics and Thatcherism, also called trickle down, but really has been a steady flow up.
And folks realize now they have been had but the plan was put in place 45 years ago and the Koch Brothers had the money and patience and method of public influence to let it work.
Most know who Warren Buffet is, well here is 20 year old quote, November 26,2006.
Multi-Billionaire Warren Buffett said, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
Then let's look at an explanation by Neoliberalism critic George Monbiot and a new book Invisible Doctrine The Secret History of Neoliberalism 2024.
So b it. Very. Few citizens could even explain what Neoliberalism is let alone how it works.
Free trade, free enterprise unregulated capitalism, tax breaks for the rich or elite as PP calls them and of subsidies for business who only concern these days is the Milton Friedman Doctrine, profit
several times. It is primarily an American institution so of course there are hundreds of attendees from every State, may Municipalities, as well as the Federal Governments. All work either in administering/enforcing government ethics laws (such as they are) or are directly affected by these laws. In the U.S. there are numerous and quite stringent laws about lobbying and election finance at all levels, but actually very little conflicts of interest legislation (like we have in Canada and most other OECD nations). There are tens of thousands of folks across the U.S. who are directly employed to enforce (to the extent possible under their laws) ethical conduct on the part of elected officials. But of course the vast majority of those are operating at the State and Municipal levels, not the Federal level.
To the objective observer, it seems pretty clear that the majority of the supporters/participants in what might be called the far right wing (in every nation), spend a significant portion of their time looking for hacks to avoid having to comply with any sort of ethical legislation or indeed, flat out ignore it unless it suits their purpose. To me, the culture has become one where ethical conduct is not just ignored, but actively denigrated. How does a a society counter that?
As a dual citizen, I have a heartfelt perspective from both sides. As an US citizen, I feel a complete abandonment of American leadership in the world with respect to decency, democracy, and rule of law. It’s been abandoned in an instant. Americans willing,y chose to abandon those values. As a Canadian, I fear the successful Trumpism political strategy of lies, grievance, isolation, bigotry, and conspiracy will take a firmer grip and similarly erode our own values and leadership in the world.
It’s impossible to deny that Danielle Smith takes her cues from Fox News, Trump, and the Republican party. Lies, grievance, isolation, bigotry and conspiracy….. It’s all very undeniably familiar. She will be now emboldened to go further and without any shame. All while propping herself up with a preposterously contrived 91.5% support level that would make any authoritarian proud.
I expect Trudeau will be trounced in the upcoming election. And in any sane world it will be deserved. But I truly worry about what we will vote to replace him with.
We are currently presented with an alternative that looks far different than what that same alternative looked like in the last two elections. We should be demanding better than simply “not Trudeau”.
Thanks Dave. Keep writing about provincial politics. World changing events and their undoing have their origins at local levels. And now more than ever independent journalism and independent voices are needed and need to be supported.
I for one am not going to be kind to MAGA or their Canadian Wannabes. These are the Stupid Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned about in his writing On Stupidity. "Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice." They are an existential threat to western liberal democracy. And given the bizarre policies overwhelmingly embraced at the recent UCP AGM, a threat to actual survival. Their self-delusion borders on the need to be medicated. The obsession MAGA and their Canadian Wannabes have with transgender people is weird and unhealthy. The only explanation is they need some group to hate in order to survive.
This is no time for "Sunny Ways". There is no political campaign strategy that can overcome stupid. It is time to act like Canadian democracy is on what Sun Tzu in the Art Of War calls "death ground" because it is. (As an aside, this book was recommended reading by business schools.) Maybe political parties are not the most effective way to mitigate stupid. Maybe a new dynamic will emerge.
The US election has ushered in Bro culture - TechBros, CryptoBros, TheoBros, PodcastBros like the elderly Bro Joe Rogan. Like any well played Bait and Switch grift, this US election is very shortly going to become the Vance and Heritage Foundation presidency. The Heritage Foundation on their website was accepting names from people who were interested in applying for jobs in the US federal government. Project 2025 is The Conservative Promise. Is this the plan Canadian conservative parties have for Canada's future? Could there be some introspection on the part of those claiming they are conservative to realize traditional conservatism and its values are now gone, consumed by stupid and the predators who manipulate them.
https://evonomics.com/how-to-disguise-racism-and-oligarchy-use-the-language-of-economics/
Explains why and how we got here very simply!
Neoliberalism came into vogue thru Reaganomics and Thatcherism, also called trickle down, but really has been a steady flow up.
And folks realize now they have been had but the plan was put in place 45 years ago and the Koch Brothers had the money and patience and method of public influence to let it work.
Most know who Warren Buffet is, well here is 20 year old quote, November 26,2006.
Multi-Billionaire Warren Buffett said, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
Then let's look at an explanation by Neoliberalism critic George Monbiot and a new book Invisible Doctrine The Secret History of Neoliberalism 2024.
So b it. Very. Few citizens could even explain what Neoliberalism is let alone how it works.
Free trade, free enterprise unregulated capitalism, tax breaks for the rich or elite as PP calls them and of subsidies for business who only concern these days is the Milton Friedman Doctrine, profit
Look up Neoliberalism principles at Investopedia.com my
But as I said, the media totally ignored this transition
During my tenure as General Counsel to the Office of the Ethics Commissioner, I had the privilege to attend the annual COGEL Conference => https://www.cogel.org/mpage/Homepage2024Conference
several times. It is primarily an American institution so of course there are hundreds of attendees from every State, may Municipalities, as well as the Federal Governments. All work either in administering/enforcing government ethics laws (such as they are) or are directly affected by these laws. In the U.S. there are numerous and quite stringent laws about lobbying and election finance at all levels, but actually very little conflicts of interest legislation (like we have in Canada and most other OECD nations). There are tens of thousands of folks across the U.S. who are directly employed to enforce (to the extent possible under their laws) ethical conduct on the part of elected officials. But of course the vast majority of those are operating at the State and Municipal levels, not the Federal level.
To the objective observer, it seems pretty clear that the majority of the supporters/participants in what might be called the far right wing (in every nation), spend a significant portion of their time looking for hacks to avoid having to comply with any sort of ethical legislation or indeed, flat out ignore it unless it suits their purpose. To me, the culture has become one where ethical conduct is not just ignored, but actively denigrated. How does a a society counter that?