Cognitive Dissonance

Ahhh, politics. Socially-sanctioned hypocrisy disguising itself as democracy. Here in Canada it is almost Election Day. Our elections don’t take place in the same way as some other countries. It is usually up to the government itself to call an election, or in the case of a minority government (as has happened this time) the opposition decides to make a motion of non-confidence in the government and force an election. I personally despise politics. Why? Because it brings out the worst in most people involved in it, even the most well-meaning people. I really believe that most politicians, no matter how morally bankrupt they may have become, started out with a genuine desire to help people. They really wanted to make things better. Problem is, once they got into the process, and the longer they are in it, the more they realise that they can’t help everyone. And, of course, that means they are left with 2 choices in those situations:

a) Be honest and say, hey, I can’t help you. Sorry. b) Tell them you WILL help them but then do diddly.

Human nature being what it is, choice a) leads to the thought that if they don’t help people, they won’t get re-elected and, depending on the person, either worries about losing the power of being in such a position or concerns about NOT being able to help at least some people any more. There is always a little bit of arrogance involved, I mean, most people are completely incapable of admitting that someone else might be able to do their job better. So, most politicians choose b). And once you start lying, it becomes really difficult to stop. You may not have meant it as anything but a little white lie to help someone feel better, but it still virtually ALWAYS leads to bigger lies as the pressure builds. It is the nature of the beast. I have found it astonishing over the last few days to see how selective memory plays a role in the mind of voters. Let me just preface any further comments with this: my political beliefs are quite libertarian. I honestly had no idea what that really meant until the last few years. I didn’t know there WAS a political view defined by how I felt. So, I am not a Liberal. I am not a Conservative, Progressive Conservative, or Reformer. I do not support or believe in the New Democratic Party of Canada. My views are not from my Progressive Conservative upbringing or inspired by religious beliefs that colour how I think OTHER people should behave. I believe we as a society should support the sick and elderly because compassion is critical, so there is a little bit of socialist in me – but the rest of the time I think that the government needs to leave well enough alone. So, here it is. I know that there are going to be lots of politically partisan hacks who will dispute my observations but this is how I have viewed the last 30-odd years of Canadian government. As a kid, I was surprisingly (disturbingly?) aware of what the government was doing – I remember getting pains in my stomach every time the Liberal government brought in a budget with a deficit in the 70s, knowing who EXACTLY was going to have to pay for all this borrowed money. Trudeau and the Liberals in the late 60s to early 80s basically created the national debt. Sure, we owed money as a nation here and there at times but for the most part, wiser budgeting then – instead of using overspending on social programs to attempt to buy elections – would have prevented much of what was to come later. It really was the Liberals who started the mess in the first place, at least for those in power in my lifetime. Good socialist ideas governments had implemented became what the voters EXPECTED, even demanded, to have. When the country came to its senses for a short time and elected a minority PC government in 1979 based on their promises to reign in the runaway spending, the Conservatives of Joe Clark blew it, showing that typical arrogance present in politicians. They handed power back to the Liberals in 1980, believing to the bitter end that they would just win a majority government in a new election to replace their minority. That led to 4 more years of Liberal financial irresponsibility. That led to more political backlash on the part of regular Canadians, leading to the election of the Brian Mulroney led PC party in 1984, in which they were given a HUGE majority - the 2nd largest in Canadian history. However, in spite of this mandate, the attempts by the Mulroney PCs to reduce the deficit were hindered by the fact that the Canadian Senate (which consists of political appointees who were largely from the party who had governed for the last 20 years) was dominated by Liberals who fought the conservative government at almost every turn. That is not to say that there were not problems with the PC party. After being out of power, many old-school Conservatives expected political patronage appointments for their years of loyalty to the party in opposition, and some got them. There were a few incidents which demonstrated that the Liberals were not the only party who liked to hand dollars over to their friends, but from my perspective the level of corruption was less a problem than the inability to impose controls and standards over their huge parliamentary majority. The 1988 election reduced that problem – the PCs still retained a comfortable majority (almost 60%) of the seats in the House of Commons and garnered over 43% of the popular vote because people hadn't yet forgotten the Liberal corruption and mismanagement of the previous decade. Then came the recession. It was not a CANADIAN recession, it was worldwide. However, there are still those who blame the Mulroney government for it. It is completely foolish to do so; all countries were in the same boat. If anything it was admirable that the PC party did not do what the Liberals did in the same situation – ignore it and spend more - but the cuts and changes they were making were difficult. As much as many voters CLAIM they don’t want to dump debt on their children, the fact is that almost the entire Baby Boomer generation has been raised with an attitude of entitlement so when it comes down to it they don’t want debt passed on to their children AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT COST THEM ANYTHING. At this time the Mulroney PCs also introduced the GST. The GST was NOT a new tax. No, you idiot, yes you, the one jumping up and down over there, it wasn’t. The GST is a 7% tax that replaced an 11-13% manufacturer’s tax. The manufacturer’s tax was applied on all goods manufactured in Canada which meant that Canadian exports were taxed before export, and therefore were more expensive than other countries goods right from the get-go, making us less competitive in the world economy. The GST is paid on all items whether of Canadian manufacture or otherwise equally. It is a fairer system. But – in one of the worst PR debacles in history - the PC party was unable to clearly convey this to Canadians. Of course, most of them weren’t listening – all they saw was that the government was taking 7% right at the cash register. MANY retailers took advantage of the situation, as well – in spite of the fact that the cost of what was being delivered to stores was reduced by the manufacturers tax, they did not roll back prices. Instead, many padded their profit margin by the 10%+ difference and then blamed the government. So, Canadians hate the GST. Never mind that it is fairer, it is a good excuse to bitch and piss and moan about what an asshole Mulroney is. Yeah, the same guy from Baie Comeau everyone loved, the same guy that was elected to 2 consecutive substantial majority governments – suddenly he is the most despised man in Canada. He resigns in 1993 because who really wants to be the most hated person in Canada? He drops the whole mess into the lap of the new PC leader Kim Campbell. Campbell was, to say the least, not exactly prepared and fumbled around like a tuna on a trawler. In spite of the fact that the PCs were finally in a position to balance the budget after their economic initiatives were working and get Canada back on track, the Liberals were elected in 1993. Not based on any level of competence or ability. Not because they were a different group of politicians who Canada had tossed out of office for corruption and mismanagement less than 10 years before. Oh, no. They were elected because they promised they would abolish the GST. Kim Campbell's floudering campaign and numerous gaffes didn't help any, either. The PC party was virtually obliterated, winning only 2 seats and losing official party status. Much of this was due to vote splitting, since the Reform party had appeared as a right-wing alternative and culled a substantial number of PC votes – but it was still largely because of the voter’s selective and short memory. Forget how much the Liberals had run the country into the ground from the 60s to the 80s; forget it was them who created the deficit in the first place – NOW they say they will get rid of that pesky GST. The Liberals didn’t balance the budget right away, nor did they eliminate the GST. They took 3 years longer to balance it that the Conservatives (or their own) projections, and they actually tried to fool us all by merging the GST with provincial taxes so they could say they got rid of it. In the end it was as much an improvement of the economy that led to balancing the budget as anything, something the Liberal’s actually had little to do with since it was the initiatives created in the PC years before, INCLUDING abolishing the MST, that were making Canada’s economy stronger. But, of course, it would not be politically astute to be honest and admit that you were handed the ball while you were already standing in the end zone. Just dance around like a fool screaming, "I scored! I rock!" The Liberal’s entire mandate over the last 12+ years has been rife with financial scandals and waste. They have cut funds going to the taxpayers and the provinces but continued to hand over funds to their cronies. They cancelled purchases initiated by the PC party but then spent TWICE AS MUCH to get half of what the PC deal would have delivered. They have repeatedly weathered controversies and disposed of MPs who have stood up for what is right, and despite any logical conclusion that they should be tossed out in the next election, keep getting returned to power. The level of greed, corruption, and entitlement has been astonishing, making the Mulroney government and even the Trudeau Liberals leadership look like that of Charlemagne, Churchill and Alexander the Great. Should I even get INTO the whole Mike Harris provincial PC thing? The fact is they were elected by the middle class based on the idea that they were going to kick all those lazy, good-for-nothing welfare collectors out into the job market and make them pay their own way. Yep, let’s cut down on government spending by victimizing the most vulnerable element, after all, they are the drain on our society. It never occurred to those voters that if those assholes were willing enough to take from the poor they would be MORE than willing to take from those who weren’t in need. He wasn’t elected only ONCE but TWICE. The thing is, they did EXACTLY what they said they were going to do. They were the most honest politicians to come along for ages. But now, selective memory has turned them into sleazy lying corrupt demons. No, folks, you elected them based on what they said they were going to do. They did exactly that. Then, the Liberals came along in the last election and lied to you and said they were going to do things better. So, you elected them. Even when it was obvious late in the campaign that they had no intention of following through with many of their promises, you elected them. Now you hate them for lying. But you hate the other guys before them for telling the truth and doing it, so honestly, what do you expect from politicians? Let’s sum it all up this way. The Liberals are the same Liberals they have been for over 30 years, provincially and federally. They have gleefully taken everything they could from taxpayers because we keep letting them. Every time someone notices this fact they employ the “Hey, look over there!” tactic and then run away. They are sleazy and corrupt and drunk from years of power. Their entire CAMPAIGN this election has been a smear campaign, citing half-truths and out-of-context quotes. They have lied and lied, and then, to cover the lies, they lie some more. The Conservative Party is, for all intents and purposes, a bunch of political rookies with no clue how to govern. There is nothing much left of the “old guard” of the PC party. Some of them are right-wing fundamentalist nitwits who have no place in the Canadian governmental system because they can’t grasp that we are a multicultural society with many different beliefs and values. Some of them are America-lovers who don’t understand Canadians for the most part do not WANT to be part of the U.S.A. The old green blood of the Reform Party runs through much of the Western portion of the new Conservatives, that same party that was caught on several occasions spouting bigoted and racist propaganda. They will trample on YOUR rights to do what you want to do because THEY don’t think you should do it, even if it is none of their business. That whole Charter of Rights thing is a big inconvenience to how they want to govern. The NDP is a bunch of clueless Union reps, who throughout their recent history have lost touch with reality: that‘s the one where if you run a company out of business trying to greedily get more and more for yourself, YOU NO LONGER HAVE A JOB; the same one where if you have a government job you are there to do the job, not to whine about how overworked you are and demand pay raises while all other taxpayers have to foot the bill. The New Democrat’s brand of socialism sounds nice to this disabled Canadian on the surface, but if you actually dig into what would be involved in implementing their ideas, you realise that all they are is a bunch of idealistic turd-polishers. All other parties involved aren’t even running enough candidates to govern even if they had ALL of them elected. So if you are trying to elect a government as opposed to a candidate, you must vote for the 3 fantastic choices above. So, honestly, where do you put your vote?