Why opine on the elections in both the U.S. and Canada at the same time?
The reason is simple: the stakes are pretty much the same in both countries.
Or rather, the fundamental question underlying the general elections in Canada and the U.S. is essentially the same: will the people wise up and rid themselves of the same brand of far right republicans/conservatives?
(Fair warning: this post is a rather lenghty one!)
The reason is simple: the stakes are pretty much the same in both countries.
Or rather, the fundamental question underlying the general elections in Canada and the U.S. is essentially the same: will the people wise up and rid themselves of the same brand of far right republicans/conservatives?
(Fair warning: this post is a rather lenghty one!)
And of course, the same talking points are used:Notice how they also tend to contradict themselves while hanging on desperately to the same talking points as time goes by and as they keep being proven wrong - whether with regards to justifications for going to war, to the Taliban ressurgence in Afghanistan, to the success of the surge in Iraq, to any tangible, significant and sustained progress in Afghanistan and/or Iraq, and even with regards to the economy.
This last week of the McCain-Palin campaign constitutes a paragon of such dynamic - one driven by the 2nd, 4th and 5th Principles of Incompetence. Lying and obfuscating are second nature to them to such degrees, thus ever compelled to distort and exaggerate facts and the truth, that they just can't keep up with reality anymore as events keep on unravelling their lies and fabrications.
Hell, the McCain-Palin has been lying so much about everything and anything (from crowd attendance at rallies or fishes loving oil rigs, to Alaska contributing a whopping 20% to the whole of the U.S. energy needs, via selling state corporate jets on eBay or promising to put the federal checkbook online when this is already implemented), including tap dancing, flip-flopping and side-stepping so as to finding themselves twisted into impossible knots, that this campaign has crossed the threshold of the ridiculous into the great beyond of the absurd.
And this is not counting the outright, shameful lies and fabrications concerning their opponents - including of course accusing them of being guilty for what they have done/are doing (examples here, here, here and here).
Which in turn reminds me of this:Harper and his Harpies are no exception to this (numerous examples can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, among many) - not counting their staunch support/defense of Bush/Cheney doctrine, policies and vision, stance on Kyoto and obfuscation/disinformation on global warming, seeking backdoor/underhanded ways to render abortion illegal, stance against same-sex marriage, et al..
In fact, we get the exact same playbook:All things considered, including the utterly disastrous eight years of the Bush-Cheney regime, one would be tempted to conclude that the republicans/conservatives are facing a definite booting out of government in both Canada and the U.S., once these elections are over and done with - right?
Not so fast - sadly enough.
On the one hand, the nation-wide lead of the Democratic Party Obama-Biden ticket over that of the insanely absurd McCain-Palin (or should that be Palin-McCain?) G.O.P. ticket is on average slim, in contrast to what one would expect. Since the McCain-Palin campaign keeps on doing their best to make the elections about character instead of issues (like Bush-Cheney did in 2000 and 2004), banking on the general state of misinformation and/or non-information in the electorate, it looks like indeed too many among the American People are either falling for this same old song and dance, or are being confused by it just enough so far - which may tip the balance in favor of the McCain-Palin ticket in the end. Consequently, we may be facing a situation whereby the Democratic ticket has a slim majority of the total suffrages (say, 51% to 49%) and yet loosing out on the electoral college votes attributed per state (a somewhat facsimile of 2000). Nonetheless, there is hope here that the Obama-Biden may win the day clearly and definitely - although, again, not by the landslide that would be logically expected under the circumstances.
On the other hand, hope is slim in Canada that Harper and his Harpies will lose the elections. Whereas the current McCain-Palin ticket acts like a bad parody of themselves, Harper and the CPC act more like the Bush-Cheney ticket and G.O.P. of 2004. Consequently, these elections are being driven first and foremost (of course) about character, instead of issues. And this is working largely because this is playing on the general state of misinformation and/or non-information in the electorate (as in the U.S.) and because of Harper apparently having no "strong enough" opponent to truly challenge him and his party. Indeed, the LPC and its leader Stéphane Dion have been (and are still) too busy triangulating, seeking to run on their proposed "Green shift carbon tax plan" and making lavish billon dollars promises (see here, here and here, as examples) without any clear plan on how to pay for it all, while missing out on efficiently pushing issues that could sink Harper and the CPC (e.g. women rights/issues, the Afghanistan mission - which Harper is dodging by flip-flopping/backtracking and now giving it an end-date of 2011, the "In-and-Out" scandal, the Bush emulation, et al.), in addition to Dion seemingly behaving like a Dukakis/Kerry hybrid (of the 1988 and 2004 U.S. elections, respectively). Conversely, although the NDP and its leader Jack Layton have apparently learned the lessons of previous elections by challenging Harper only (and not the LPC at the same time), they keep underselling their own electoral platform (which still needs a little bit tilting towards the center) in favor of making no-plan billion dollars promises as well (examples here, here and here) while playing the "character" game above all (although Layton has apparently learned to play the character game this time around - one example here - but it will not be enough to put him over Harper and the CPC). In addition, many ridings lack actual NDP candidates (in mine, I see Jack Layton/NDP signs, but no candidate names). In between, Harper has the field wide open to criticize both Layton and Dion for their big spending promises. This whole situation is further compounded by the media's apparent amnesia (or timid mentionning) of Harper/CPC scandals, gaffes and woes (examples here, here and here; and see another list here) - again, in a similar situation as that of the 2004 elections in the U.S. and in sharp contrast to the current 2008 U.S. elections.
Taking these considerations altogether, we get the following result: a recent Canwest News Service/Global National poll indicates that Canadians' pick as would-be best Prime Minister stand at 49.9% for Harper, 30.5% for Jack Layton, and 19.6% for Stéphane Dion. Granted, such polls are inherently biased towards incumbent Prime Ministers; nevertheless, a recent Canadian Press/Harris-Decima poll indicates the voting intentions of Canadians as follows: 36% for the CPC, 27% for the LPC, and 16% for the NDP. Hence, it looks like we are heading right back were we started in 2006, ending up with a Harper minority government again (at best) - which will mean at least two more years (if not four) of Harper governing as if he heads a majority government, being enabled to do so as in the last two years by the two other opposition parties which will be again too busy with their re-evaluations and triangulations (if not having to choose a new leader yet again, in the case of the LPC).
Although it is a given that I will not vote for Harper and the CPC, I find myself being frustrated by the fact that I just can't decide yet on whether to vote LPC or NDP - in large part due to overall unfocused campaigning on their part.
Need I say that I am not happy at all by the way things are apparently playing themselves out - in both the U.S. and, especially, in Canada?
(Cross-posted from APOV)