Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, February 18, 2012

My neo-con vacation

Whatever political legacy Justin inherited from his famous father, it sure wasn't the diplomacy part. Poor Trudeau fils, born with chronic foot-in-mouth disease.

Still, many of us sympathize with what he was trying to say.

No, not the notion of a separate Quebec. But Trudeau's dismay at the prospect of a Canada rendered deeply conservative under Stephen Harper, a Canada where social progress is undone and the clock aggressively turned back - that's a dismay shared by the millions of Canadians who do not support the current government. We understand Trudeau's alarm.

Some of us even understand it with unprecedented, and disturbing, clarity. If we're really headed down the neo-con road, then I have seen our future. In fact, I'm living in it.

As a first-time snowbird, I have been spending the month in Florida, where temperatures are warm, palm trees dapple the sunlight, seniors frolic merrily and life is but a dream. Especially for the neoconservatively inclined.

I used to think I could never be an American because I didn't harbour an obsession with guns; because I don't believe health care is just another commercial commodity; because I oppose foreign policy tainted by imperialism.

That hasn't changed. It still alarms me to see so many ads for guns and gun shows, so many weapons retailers like The Bullet Hole, "Florida's Oldest Gunshop," right in the heart of downtown Sarasota, between a Vietnamese noodle house and a Thai bistro/sushi bar. It still shocks me to hear a sitting governor, Bobby Jindal of nearby Louisiana, crowing, "We love us some guns and religion, and we make no apologies for it." (True, it was at last week's Conservative Political Action Conference. But still.)

I remain shocked by the familiar tales of ordinary people losing their homes and life savings because they committed the unpardonable sin of getting seriously sick. And I still believe, as I did when I was young and demonstrating against the Vietnam War, that the U.S. should stop confusing global leadership with bullying.

All these things clearly mark me as a liberal in opposition to traditional U.S. conservative values. But they're only the surface, as I have discovered during my brief time living here. When you shop regularly at the supermarkets and drugstores, pick up the local paper each morning, chat with residents, generally look around you, you become aware of prevailing currents you might not notice on shorter visits.

You read about state teachers' retroactive pay cut. You learn that, this week, Florida executed another man.

You follow with interest - and with horror - the national debate pitting Catholic bishops against Barack Obama. Incredibly, the president's recent attempt to have Catholic institutions provide contraception coverage in their employees' health-care plans has been cast, by both Republicans and nonpartisan pundits, as an assault on "religious freedom." (And speaking of beggaring belief, who knew artificial contraception was still on the Church's no-no list? Or that there were Catholics who still cared?)
You notice the little things, like the way many Republicans and other conservatives have started referring to their nation's chief executive as "Mr.," rather than "President" Obama. You read letters to the editor - apparently serious - suggesting that Obama has transitioned from socialism to communism.

You are taken aback by news about Florida's recent attempt to turn its state prisons over to private, for-profit companies, effectively rendering them legitimized slaveholders. (An early initiative, favoured by Republican governor Rick Scott, was narrowly defeated this week. But apparently it is far from dead.)

Everyone expects social-spending cuts these days, but you are aghast at their size. (Mental health and addictions programs, for instance, are currently being targeted for a 32-percent slash.) You are even more aghast at legislation passed this week in Tallahassee that, thanks to Republican amendments, increases corporate tax exemptions - but only to companies without union labour.

True, this is the nation that treats mega-corporations like ordinary citizens, allowing them to make the same heartfelt political donations as Joey Public, albeit in millionfold multiples. So legislated anti-unionism shouldn't be shocking.

But somehow, here in the cradle of modern democracy, it is. Deeply.

Don't misunderstand. As a people, Americans are rightly known for their openness, generosity, friendliness. Canadians outside Atlantic Canada could take lessons.

But they have created, almost paradoxically, a deeply conservative society, one in which even the official liberals, like those in the Obama administration, remain well to the right of the Toriest Canadian Tories.

It's a topsy-turvy world and, despite surface similarities, it does not feel like home here. I hope it never does.

I suspect this is what Justin Trudeau was getting at in his awkward way.

Having a great time. Wish you were here.

But I'll be happy to get back.

Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen 
Author: Janice Kennedy  

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