Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Tom D'Aquino - true democrat

Responding to protestors against the secret Security n' Prosperity Partnership [sic] pact, and against the anti-democratic elitism wherein bush II, Stephen Harper, and the guy who stole the Mexican presidency; Felipe Calderon, were getting together with 30 CEOs to discuss the SPP, while ordinary Canadians were pointedly excluded, ... Canadian Council of Chief Executives (and summit attendee) Thomas D'Aquino opined:

"I do not say to myself, 'If I don't get an hour with the prime minister in the next six months, I'm going to go out and protest and reject the system outright,' " he told CBC News.


"I don't do that because civilized human beings — those who believe in democracy — don't do that."

Boy Thomas, what are you talking about? Is that shit-stain supposed to be relevant to what was going on outside the summit? So, a guy like you, who has had near-instant access to the highest political levels in Canada for over a decade, and who has had all of his moronic, destructive initiatives transformed into public policy, you think that you'd be big enough not to protest if you didn't get an hour with the prime ministser every six months?

Try this one on for size you dumbfuck: You never get an hour with the prime minister. You might get five seconds, when he strangles you for getting in his way to talk about tax cuts, but that's not likely. You never get any of your ideas taken up by the political elite. The only stuff they seem to care about is getting together with like-minded union and social justice and anti-imperialist elites and hatching plans to fleece you and frustrate you.

My bet is that Aquino, the Aspers, Stronachs, Irvings, Eatons, Bronfmans, etc., etc., would be out protesting furiously if a series of governments dedicated to their impoverishment and disenfrancisement were elected in this country. I'd also bet that their protests would be miniscule, because aside from the knuckle-dragging dupes and stupid thugs who form the "Conservative" hard-core of electoral support, most people are smart enough to know what's in their own best interests.

That's why you get sizeable anti-corporate globalization protests, whereas the numbers of people who give a shit what Canada's corporations and wealthy elites want is tiny.

That's why the "civilized democrat" Thomas D'Aquino needs riot police, soldiers, and mercenaries to protect him when he's conspiring against the people with the current crop of neo-liberal political hacks.

[While I was putting in the links for this post, it occurred to me that uber-democrat Aquino is blathering on about his principles whilst attending a secretive summit nominally led by a trio, two-thirds of whom had not been democratically elected but instead, installed via fraud. You really have to take notes and keep a list of the extensive hypocrisies and shameless stupidity of our political leadership.]

Oh yeah, a cartoon about corporats' notions about "democracy."

2 comments:

Scott Neigh said...

And add to your little addendum about two-thirds of them being installed by fraud the equally mind-bending fact that for at least two-thirds of them, in terms of this agreement and based on recent history it is unlikely to have mattered much to the course of the SPP if their main electoral opponent won rather than them. And that may be true of all three of them, I just don't know enough about Obrador to say for sure.

In terms of D'Aquino's dismissal of protest by appealing to civility -- well, it makes me mad, too, but I think we need to put serious effort into finding effective ways to counter it. I say this because it is such a common tactic, and it is a very effective one. Even many people who identify in some sense as "progressive" are often swayed by it, and either dismiss completely any action beyond a stern letter as somehow a bad thing or fall into the trap of divide and conquer by foregrounding the "good protester vs. bad protester" division that the media often creates.

I haven't thought it through, but I think one useful tack to take in countering the "civility" discourse from elites and their lackeys is to keep pounding away at what these horrid (mostly) men and the institutions that empower them actually do in terms of death, destruction, and suffering.

thwap said...

Oh, there's no doubt that the Libs and Dems (at least) would have, and probably do, support the SPP.

After all, D'Aquino has had no problem with getting his ideas across to either of the two main parties.

Which is another strike against this whole sickening claim to be a true democrat on D'Aquino's part. The Libs and Dems will campaign, and win, by standing against the corporate agenda, but will demoralize the electorate by governing according to it once in power.

Regarding the "good protestor/bad protestor" images that are portrayed in the media, I couldn't agree more. One thing even pacifists should do is to refuse taking the bait to absolutely demonize any and all violence.

Certainly, self-styled "direct action" types shouldn't endanger peaceful protestors, especially frail people, who explicitly want to avoid violent confrontation. But when everyone jumps on the bandwagon and damns the genuine, anarchist rock-throwers, then that makes these agent-provocateurs' jobs all the easier.

Throw one rock, and the entire protest is delegitimized, and all the participants must surrender the civil rights.

But yeah, the main thing to point out is the far greater cruelty, thuggery, and hypocrisy, of assholes like D'Aquino, who has done so much to destroy the environment, cause homelessness, threaten public health care, cause unemployment and despair, ... and the whole "DeathSquads r Us" nature of the capitalist system.