I think – think – I’ve emerged from my pisser, and about time, too. It’s really incredible, how hotly a person can defend their own depressive state – guard budding resentments jealously against resolution and reconciliation – cut off their nose to spite their face – anyways. Time to shake off, fight off or lick off the thick sludgy molasses of inert gloom. It’s being a very pretty autumn and I have a great deal to do that is both amusing and imperative.
Not much to say that’s fit for print, except it’s striking me afresh, as I listen to French protestations over not wanting to sanction Iran while seeing eye-to-eye with the United States, and American refusals to tolerate a nuclear North Korea which they are in the process of calmly tolerating, that it’s shocking people pay any attention to what comes out of individual politician’s mouths. It’s such an annoying and inescapable reality that most national decisions and platforms are shaped by overarching imperatives and entire political structures. Anything a government spokesperson says is usually just an effort to dress that up as something more than impotence. . .
Even so . . . I remember during coursework in Paris during the lead-up to the last presidentials in the United States having to do a blow-by-blow comparison of the candidates’ stated platforms – practically identical. It was a disheartening exercise. They can’t even talk the talk different from each other in that country. I really don’t understand how Americans tolerate their fucking horrible democracy. The only role of the Republicans as a party is reconciling the opposites of fiscal libertarianism and social conservatism; Democrats are just as sloppy . . . what the hell is even the point of holding elections there? Distraction? Advertising revenue for the news channels? If those people had any fucking gumption left at all, they’d be on the street right now insisting on electoral reform. Too many Twinkies and television channels, that’s their problem.
Ahhhhh. I love ranting my way out of a grump.
7 commenti:
Ha! So true - ranting one's self back into a good mood again..whatever works, right?!
Please say hi to everyone for me tomorrow night at the Shake a Tail dealie. You'll have to explain what that exactly is sometime.
Whatever works!
Are we any different here? I had a bit of a discussion over Thanksgiving about the fact that the Liberals are so far right they are practically the same as Conservatives. I, of course, had to try to argue that the Conservatives are much worse than the Liberals even if you couldn't say that the Liberals are much better than the Conservatives. My point is that politics in Canada and the States have both moved to the right of the centre so much that being on the left has become an insult thrown at the "liberal" governments. What CAN you do? Vote for the most liberal party? Bitch about it? Vote strategically and then curse that you had a part in voting that cloaked right-wing asshole into power?
No, Sugarplum, we're different. I can understand being frustrated with Canadian politics, but that means being frustrated with Canadians. Americans, conversely, have a supremely unrepresentative political system which is so structurally frustrating I, who think voting should be mandatory, don't blame them for not voting en masse.
We have five major political parties spreading across a range of ideologies. We have possibilities for more or others to become major parties - as people start taking the Greens seriously, for example. If everybody voted their ideologies, we'd have a parliamentary system that reflected Canadian ideologies, and if that's a problem it's the population's problem. If the Liberal party is too far right and the NDP is a bloody mess it's because their base is expecting the wrong things of them. But in the United States, they have two virtually identical parties and no real prospects or possibilities for a third.
Not to mention there isn't the communication between the population and the major parties that can come with, for example, 10% of Canadians voting for the Green party, causing the ruling party to make gestures towards shoring up the support of Canadians who care about the environment. That simply doesn’t exist in the States.
You're right but the more I think about federalism in Canada the more frustrated I get because of the way the Canadian people allow themselves to be controlled by the two major parties into voting strategically instead of voting with their hearts and minds. So we end up with - essentially - a two party system where the other parties have little or no power except to agree or disagree with the two ruling parties. Until there is electoral reform (which is moving VERY slowly) it is difficult to be optimistic about Canadian politics.
I hope the Liberals are looking at what Canadians are voting for by voting for the Greens or NDP or the Bloq and it looks like the leadership race has brought that out in the debates but I don't want the Liberals to win, I really don't want the Conservatives to win and I don't think I want the NDP to win and I'm not sure about the Greens. So where does this leave us? It all works in theory but Canadian politics are a real mess right now. Historically speaking, it is hard to imagine anything will change.
If we have lousy political parties with lousy leaders, it's because right now we deserve them for having been too disengaged for a couple of decades.
More critical thinking from the population is more important than electoral reform, although I'm not too big on the first-past-the-post system. And with more popular critical thinking will come change in Canadian politics.
Historically speaking I think it's actually pretty likely - look at the Cultural revolution in Quebec, look at the dynamism of the Trudeau years.
The thing is politically speaking, we have real possibilities for change within our present system. Americans don't.
True. But how to you convince the population of a country to engage in critical thinking? It seems to be a skill lost on the younger generation... at least from my point of view.
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