A Tale Of Two Countries And Their Hateful Politics.

I’m pretty sure that a few people will not hesitate to jump down my throat here. But I no longer give a shit. I’m a big boy. I can defend myself.
As many of you know I have been writing, in not too flattering terms, about the right wing movement in the US, under the laughable ‘leadership’ of Trump.
In occasional fits of optimism, I postulated that the passage of the Republican sponsored health care bill, or the repeal and replace Obamacare initiative would, if ever passed, be the brick to the head of the American people that would finally shrink support for the administration (and I use the term loosely), and the houses of government to near zero.
Well, I’m happy to report that I was wrong. It appears that a lot of people saw the brick before it hit them, and, in true democratic fashion, let their voices be heard loud and clear to their congressmen and senators who were interested in keeping their cushy jobs after next year’s election.
The result was a huge defeat for the forces of evil that do the bidding of the billionaire class. And yet another great opportunity for the American people to see just what a chickenshit they elected as president, as he went into a full tilt denial with fabulous quotes like, “Let ObamaCare Fail” and “This Is Not On Me”.
Of course the people understand that even a failing ObamaCare system was light years beyond anything the government was proposing as a replacement. And secondly, denial of any responsibility for this epic fail does fall right into the President’s lap, because whether Trump chooses to believe it or not, that is where the proverbial buck stops.

I Shake My Head A Lot These Days

As a Canadian, and as I watched all this bullshit go down, my first impulse was to believe there was something wrong with the American people. But in the fullness of time, as William F Buckley would say, I have come to realize that the people may have just been giving their government enough rope to hang themselves, for that is very much what appears to have happened here.
And the awakening that appears to have occurred is that the people could now realize that the ultimate power is really with them. And it is maintained by forcing their politicians to be accountable.
Trump’s pettiness, vindictiveness and cowardice and that of both houses of government is now pretty much out there for everybody to see, and my feeling is that everybody is looking a lot harder at it than they have been.
This is no magic bullet that will end all the problems that America has to deal with going forward. But it’s at least a step forward in the journey of a thousand miles.

Meanwhile In Canada

The Liberal government headed by Pretty Boy Justin Trudeau has come under attack by Conservatives for a 10.4 million dollar settlement they made with a man named Omar Kadhr, a Canadian who was caught up in a battle in Afghanistan, where he killed a US soldier, then was sent to Guantanimo where he was held and allegedly tortured for 10 years, while the Canadian government, under Conservative Stephen Harper, did nothing to force his extradition to Canada.
Nobody knows the true circumstances surrounding this event. But the Liberal government made restitution to Kadhr in the amount of 10.4 million.
When you think about it, which Conservatives are not always the best at, that seems pretty fair. Especially when you listen to him talk about his experiences since he has returned to Canada. He’s finding it impossible to get work, because of this controversy. So what is he supposed to do? He’s certainly not going to be welcomed in the US and he needs to survive because, well, he’s a Canadian and we’re partial to survival.
But the Conservatives, in their need to get back into power, have turned this into a political football and are attacking the Trudeau government over this issue, hoping to sway public opinion to their camp and give them a chance to win the next election.
But according to this article in the Hill Times http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/07/18/khadr-deal-not-yet-hurting-trudeaus-popularity-campaign-research/113911, while a lot of people disapprove, it really hasn’t been the political poison pill the Conservatives had hoped it would be.

You Can Only Mess With Democracy For So Long

This is one thing that Canada and the US have in common. The US had a great leader, in Barack Obama who, for 8 years, performed a number of minor miracles to get the US economy back on track, to fight terrorism and the to keep the respect level of the world high.
In just 6 short months Trump has pretty much undone all of that and the longer term effects of the isolationist policies he’s advocating have the potential to bring the American economy to its knees.
Conversely, in Canada, the Liberals under Trudeau, took over from 10 years of draconian Conservative bullshit, saddled with a much higher debt load than was reported by the outgoing government, and a fairly substantial learning curve to deal with.
It didn’t help that our largest trading partner was being run by a moron who believed that his country was being screwed left and right by bad trade deals. But every government has crap to deal with, and in my opinion, he’s been doing the best he can with a bad situation.
Now the Conservatives have elected a new leader who looks like he’s even worse than Harper on a good day, another Albertan named Andrew Scheer, who promises to keep hammering away at this issue in the fall when parliament resumes.
What the Conservatives don’t realize is that in six weeks that story will be dead and buried, and they will have to find something else to bitch about.

The New Cruelty Of Politics

The right wings in both of these countries seem to have zero interest in working with their political counterparts on behalf of the people.
In the US, they have to be blackmailed into voting their conscience on a health care bill that would destroy millions of lives. In Canada they feel the need to keep nipping at the heels of the ruling party instead of figuring out constructive ways to work with them.
There has always been an element of animosity in politics. After all, it’s all about ideology anyway. And I can understand that. But what really mystifies me is how this animosity elevated itself into the kind of hatred we’re seeing these days, in both countries.
I know I probably sound like an old hippie. But why they hell can’t we just focus on what’s right for the people? Because, at the end of the day, that’s all a country really is, a collection of people, the vast majority of who just want to live a healthy, meaningful and bullshit free life.

Jim Murray is a communication strategist, writer, art director blogger and beBee brand ambassador for Canada. His partner, Charlene Norman is a business systems and operational analyst. Their collaboration is called Bullet Proof Consulting, headquartered in St Catharines, Ontario and designed to serve forward thinking businesses in the Niagara and Golden Horseshoe regions of Southern Ontario. Web site coming soon.

You can find out more about us at: http://tinyurl.com/y9zc9gvx

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