tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post5014448365949255930..comments2024-03-28T09:38:52.661-04:00Comments on thwap's schoolyard: We Don't Know What We've Lostthwaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-65912537522038666592014-08-16T19:37:31.753-04:002014-08-16T19:37:31.753-04:00Thwap it is frustrating but consider that Harper h...Thwap it is frustrating but consider that Harper has brought, for the first time, a level of misrepresentation and authoratarianism to Canadian politics. I am not convinced his "base" is enthralled with all his maneuverings!! We are not used to this level level of deviousness but I do believe that many Canadians are finally getting the message (not that we were not warned. It is sobering to see how the opposition leaders have been cowed by the current "pro-Israel" lobby. The real issues are not being debated due to fear of appearing anti-semitic when in fact the issues have to do with international law, occupation and oppression. My heart was broken when I read Elie Weisel's diatribe against Hamas. Do the lessons of the Warsaw ghetto mean nothing? A just and peaceful settlement will NEVER occur through violence and oppression. And why is no one asking Bibi (and the current pro-Israel-anti-Hamas ad buyers) about the Likud charter and its thoughts about Palestinians?? I pray that a non-violent process can begin.Askingtherightquestionsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-66509743373754372962014-08-15T11:09:09.286-04:002014-08-15T11:09:09.286-04:00Mound of Sound,
We do need better than Mulcair an...Mound of Sound,<br /><br />We do need better than Mulcair and Trudeau. You're absolutely right. They're both dreadful.<br /><br />But I don't see how it will be possible to both unite against and destroy the anti-democratic menace that is Harperism (or whatever you want to call it), and remove and improve upon the leadership of the opposition. <br /><br />Elizabeth May sometimes says good things. But our strategy shouldn't hinge on an instantaneous movement of non-Con voters to the Green Party. (Besides she often says stupid things as well.)<br /><br />We need proportional representation to allow these various competing strands to show their true level of support in this country and contend with each other without letting a unified party of shameless hacks come up through the middle. <br /><br />Then we can work on improving the overall political culture in this country.thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-84323207960137679892014-08-15T11:04:17.505-04:002014-08-15T11:04:17.505-04:00Anonymous (Mahmoud?)
I don't know if you'...Anonymous (Mahmoud?)<br /><br />I don't know if you're quoting Mahmoud Steinbergman or if you're saying you're Mahmoud Steinbergman.<br /><br />Either way, I don't understand your comment.thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-81595797599094061612014-08-15T00:01:26.102-04:002014-08-15T00:01:26.102-04:00Thwap, I fear we need 'bigger' opposition ...Thwap, I fear we need 'bigger' opposition parties and courageous leaders who don't accept neoliberalism as an inevitability. We need better than Mulcair and Trudeau, much better. We're on the path to an increasingly illiberal democracy, not just in Canada but throughout much of the developed, supposedly enlightened nations. It is no accident that we are dominated by a collective of petit fonctionaires and gangsters in service to corporatism.<br /><br />I was so devoutly centrist all my life and now even I am becoming radicalized. That's a hell of a place to wind up at my age.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-87643865559908875742014-08-14T23:32:20.523-04:002014-08-14T23:32:20.523-04:00From your mouths to God's ears, guys.
Mahmoud...<br />From your mouths to God's ears, guys.<br /><br />Mahmoud SteinbergmanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-78083525684323208382014-08-14T15:24:59.004-04:002014-08-14T15:24:59.004-04:00The time for those recriminations is past. We need...The time for those recriminations is past. We need proportional representation and we need the opposition parties and the people to recognize who the enemy is.<br /><br />We need a culture that will unite to defend their democracy and that will produce generations who will recoil in horror when they look back on these years.thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-55655771486144390092014-08-14T11:36:39.280-04:002014-08-14T11:36:39.280-04:00Not just the left, the center too, which in this c...Not just the left, the center too, which in this country is not a small percentage of the voters after all. Aside from that can't argue with what you wrote, it was after all no small part of why I said leaving Martin in place in 2005 was far less corrosive to Canadian democracy despite all the issues with a tired and corrupt Lib party/government then ever allowing Harper power. I warned that abuse of tax money is far less dangerous a form of corruption than the abuse of power corruption that would walk in with Harper. As bad as the Libs may have seemed from a progressive/left position, anyone that can seriously argue (especially these days) they and the Harper CPC are essentially the same clearly has not been paying attention the past eight years. <br /><br />Like I've said before, I can understand people if they want to oppose the Libs because of their own electoral views, but if they cannot distinguish that basic a reality/truth and see them as they are (if there is one thing over the past decade which has really pissed me off it is listening to Dippers go on about "Lib Tory same old story", despite the fact that the CPC are not Tories by any actual definition of the word, the Libs at their worst tended towards being center right but the CPC are clearly an extremist far right wing party and government) then I clearly cannot trust their political judgement/perception or honesty now can I. Either they are willing to lie to suit their own political purposes or they really believe it, which is worse in my books,l and little better than those on the Harper/CPC side claiming everyone to their left are socialist commies out to impose the old style Soviet system on us.<br /><br />This country has lost a lot, and we would have lost even more if Trudeau had not brought back the Constitution in 1982 and put the Charter in place. That is the only thing which has been able to protect us even slightly from the full horrors of what Harper has wanted to bring about, as it is this country will be decades repairing the damage that is repairable (and unfortunately there is a lot that is not), the damage to our reputation and our honour, well that is not repairable. We may be able in the end to convince that we were having a bad period, our GWB insanity period, but it will not change the fact we went from being a country that truly strove to walk the path of the rule of law, the importance of democracy, and most especially the value of human rights into this nightmare you described in your post.<br /><br />Canadians allowed their complacency to make them think politics/voting does not matter, that we can trust that no one seriously dangerous could ever make it to our top. I really hope that blind spot has been ripped away from people now, because that is the only good I can see coming out of the Harper years. Who we vote for actually matters, and when we stop being involved in our politics those with dangerous agendas and interests are able to take it away from us, democracy is not a right but a privilege, and one we must always remember to work/for. There is a reason why the Americans have this cliche about the price of liberty being eternal vigilance, it is against those like Harper who would pervert and take away what makes us a caring decent open rule of law society. <br /><br />If we do not remove Harper in the next election after his first majority revealed what he truly was, then we are no better than the Americans in 2004 with GWB.Scotianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06284856315992405261noreply@blogger.com