Are We Done With Politics?

A candidate won an election without talking about how he would save the nation. Blame was sprinkled about. Opponents ridiculed. Generalizations were thrown out like flowers. Then media commentators announced that he would succeed and may well become prime minister of Canada.

Huge generalizations are published in an established national news paper. The staff I would think must be at the top of the game. Pretty much establishing the success of whoever these people hold up as examples of winners.

There is smoothness in the suits and tongues of these reporters. They seem to wash over details with their proclamations. By contrast it would seem as though survival of the neediest, recommendations on how to help those who need it most, is not relevant. 

To talk about justice since January 6 is about as relevant as corsets. To mention unmarked graves, traumatized nations, is sending us to sleep. Games of thrones are all that matter. If you can't win just shut-up.

We haven't time for the details just give us headlines. Then sprinkle points of view to explain. 

"Pierre Poilievre’s populism – taking his party “from suits to boots,” as he smartly puts it – has struck a chord. He’s riding a wave. He crushed the field in the Conservative leadership campaign. The inflation surge has the population angry, seemingly ready for change. And he’s the self-proclaimed tribune of the underclass ready to bring it." Globe and Mail, public affairs columnist, Lawrence Martin.

Well what else can you say about the success of populists? Are they good for us?

"Right-wing extremism is becoming increasingly mainstream, with the COVID-19 pandemic serving as an accelerant to that process, Canadian and international experts warned Tuesday." Globe and Mail, Marsha McLeod

“One of the greatest battles that we are fighting, in terms of our work, is the mainstreaming of extremism, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the tremendous surge in misinformation and disinformation,” Marilyn Mayo, a senior research fellow at the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said in Ottawa on Tuesday at an international conference on right-wing extremism.

No we can't be done with politics. We must take it seriously for the sake of our children and grandchildren. Not that the sophisticated writers would ever think they are there to save the world.

Also the feeling of responsibility and taking-care-of is more in line with the nanny. Bring on the defenders with clubs and guns when it becomes a war.