Canadian and US-American Politics

US-American politics really are a joke. At first I was 100 percent entertained by this "Daily Show" clip, wherein Jon Stewart and his writers and what-not totally expose the crude hypocrisies of the Repugnicans' defenses of Christian-fascist-moron vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

But after a few hours' reflection, I'm only about 90 percent entertained. Because, after all, the witlessness of the Repugnicans and their partisans is so obvious, that it's really just low-hanging fruit to expose their lies and hypocrisies. Stewart and company still did it quite well, and it's also a welcome relief from the usual totalitarian corporate media system that professes to take the US-American political system seriously (even when they clearly don't).

While I'm still kinda taken with my metaphor of US-American politics being the same sort of low-fiction as professional wrestling ["Oh! Why isn't Good-Guy Obama responding to the dirty tricks of Mad-Man McMain?? Why isn't the media exposing McCain for the liar that he is?? Boo!"] that doesn't mean that I believe that these imbeciles are capable of anything better. Karl Rove really is that untalented and stupid. John McCain really is that craven, shallow and ugly. Sarah Palin really is that big of a hypocritical airhead. The Democrats really are that deluded, corrupt and clueless. Oh yeah, and they're all that fucking evil.

And don't hold out any depressing, self-defeating visions of some shadowy capitalist ruling class that's happy to have such compliant stooges running the shop for them. They're just cut from the same cloth as the politicians, they just went about pursuing fame and fortune a different way. They're human, just like we are. That means they're stupid just like all of us are. In our lives, we've all encountered large institutions that make idiotic decisions with vapid talking-heads peppering the upper ranks of the administration. (And, of course, with a fair share of absolute cretins among all the ranks.) But there's also obvious talent in these institutions. It's the same thing within US politics. There's talent there. It's generally among the Democrats. As much as I loathed him, I never really thought Bill Clinton was stupid. I'm pretty impressed with Barack Obama's theatrical/oratorical talents and his personal charisma. But a political culture based on pursuing profit and maintaining an empire through massive violence to perpetuate profit and consumerism, is going to inevitably produce a lowering of the intellectual debate.

Which brings me to Stephen Harper. Late-capitalist political culture is an ugly thing. Being so close to point-zero of this abomination, Canada could not prevent some of the toxic slime from seeping across its border. Thus, we have the brain-dead "Conservative Party of Canada" as a major political force. And, since they directly impact on my life, I'm going to start writing more about Canadian politicians during this election, rather than the easy-to-lampoon-condemn professional wrestling tournament south of the border.

But I have to reply to Dr. Gordon in a discussion two entries ago, so for now, I'll simply provide you with a partial list of Stephen Harper's achievements, compiled by Alison at Creekside:

Canadian prisoners tortured, refusal to protect lakes, Lougheed Martin census, obstructing HoC committees, conditions on FN reserves, mail-outs from defeated Con candidates, rewriting/deleting research on government websites, Colombia free trade deal, Canada First - not, copycat crime bill, militarization of arctic, Bill C-537, Bill C-10, NACC, Server in the Sky, Canada-Israel homeland security pact, TOPOFF 5, government scientists muzzled/fired, support for Guantanamo, RCMP whitewash, TILMA, Chalk River, no-fly list, biometric passports, CIA access to banking records, Benamar Benatta, North American Forum, red fridays, Bali conference, Commonwealth climate change talks, undermining nuclear disarmament, Question Period a shambles, Independent Panel on Canada's Mission in Afghanistan, war on drugs, lowering pesticide standards, Montebello

Rest at the link.