Whether you're conservative or liberal, it's likely that your Facebook timeline is filled with hateful, scornful and outright bizarre anti-Trump posts from Canadians who by all rights don't have much skin in the game of American politics, yet continue to rant as if Mr. Trump is choking them by the throat.
If I had to put a recurring theme to these missives, it's the utter incredulity of these anti-Trump posters that Americans actually continue to put up with his wacky conservative politics, his antics, lies, fantasies and mean spirit.
Over and over again the anti-Trump Canadians shake their head in utter disbelief, yet these are the very same people that blindly support Prime Minister Trudeau who is cut from exactly the same cloth.
Trudeau supporters are actually as blind as Trump supporters, ideological fanatics, just on the opposite side of the political fence.
Fanatical supporters of Trump and Trudeau continue to support their men because politics are more important than personality and a flawed President or Prime Minister that supports what they believe in is preferable to a more honest and upstanding rival of the opposite political persuasion.
It's that simple.
And so American Trump supporters and Canadian Trudeau supporters continue to blindly follow their man because ideology is the only thing that counts.
There is nothing Trudeau or Trump can do, short of murder that can shake their indomitable faith and support.
The latest WE scandal underlines this fact whereby liberal support remains relatively unshakeable despite the latest ethical lapses of the Prime Minister and his finance minister.
Liberal supporters continue to justify the lapses in judgement with the mantra that it was a case of good intentions gone awry in a time where speed was of the essence, an updated version of the old bromide that the ends justify the means.
Liberal supporters have turned a blind eye to Trudeau's ethical failings for years, either offering up weak-ass excuses or pretending that it's just no big deal.
Sound familiar?
Replace Trump's name for Trudeau's and the argument is the same for those who blindly support Trump and forgive every peccadillo.
In Canada, Trudeau benefits from a docile press that leans heavily liberal and refuses to ask uncomfortable questions of their man.
While Trump directly lies and obfuscates, Trudeau deflects, refusing to answer any uncomfortable question, especially in Parliament where he makes a mockery of Question Period by mouthing moronic platitudes worthy of a con artist.
All the while the press refuses to investigate Trudeau's personal foibles. While the state of his marriage may be out of bounds in the name of decency, pretending to live apart from his family for quarantine reasons is more deceit, a deception that supporters are quick to pardon.
And so Teflon Trudeau survives in an era where the high and mighty are destroyed over the flimsiest of allegations.
The stink of scandal and dishonesty sheds off Trudeau like water off a duck's back. His survival is stunning in an age of instant 'cancellation' where a whisper of impropriety or unsubstantiated accusation of racism or sexual misconduct destroys public figures faster than you can say "ME TOO."
Yet Trudeau endures one personal calamity and ethical lapse after another. Incredible!
A sizeable portion of artists in Quebec have had their careers instantly destroyed over such allegations.
Our Governor-General Payette has become a dead woman walking over allegations that she's not a nice person and countless other public personalities cringe in fear that they too will be 'cancelled,'
Not Trudeau.
As for the latest scandal, it is satisfying that while Trudeau's Teflon coat will protect him, the We charity at the center of the affair will probably not.
The slimy Kielburgers have employed every classic trick in the book to curry favour with the Liberal government including offering deluxe free travel to the Finance Minister and his family and the hiring of Teflon Trudeau's family to 'speak' at WE events for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Let's be honest. What does Margret Trudeau have to say to a bunch of students that is at all interesting or worthwhile?
The same goes for Trudeau's brother.
It is a classic device to pay a politician's family instead of a direct bribe.
The same goes for hiring finance Minister Bill Morneau's daughter, a classic influence-peddling device.
But WE will not survive, the empire will be 'cancelled' abruptly, not only becoming toxic overnight but downright radio-active.
Telus and Virgin have already cancelled partnerships and the rest of the money pipeline will dry up faster than you can say 'Gotcha.'
The fall from grace while not quite of the scale of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, the disgraced American televangelists, is nonetheless as immediate.
Both Craig and Marc Kielburger are goners, best advised to dismantle their empire quickly and slink away with the money.
At any rate, Trudeau will survive as always, thanks to his Trump-like followers who will forgive anything.
While the rest of the world has recognized Trudeau as an emperor with no clothes and dismissed him as a fraud, Trudeau supporters remain blindly committed which is their right, fair enough.
But what these Trudeau supporters cannot do in good conscious is to denigrate Trump and his supporter as abhorrent because they themselves are exactly that.
OK, Phil, I have to ask the first question: Whatayagonnadoaboudit?
ReplyDeleteOK, now that I've put that first question out there, I'll comment as I usually do.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with your rant, Phil, but again, the above question. You'd think entering a new millennium (OK, we're in the 20th year, but that's still new what with 980 years to go), and considering the importance of education, and the fact more of our population now has not just completed high school, but a plenitude of post-secondary degrees and diploma programs, we'd have a smarter and more sophisticated electorate.
Well, I guess I can think that all I want, but the truth of the matter is there is NO correlation between education and...well...just good ol' plain common sense...street smarts...horse sense...whatever. It's incredible how there has been no common sense since the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, and perhaps even la révolution tranquille in ol' Québec.
Maybe back then we fought the good fights. I don't think so, but one thing is for sure. I think back then there was more of a sense of community, so people fought for causes together. Today with all this anti-social texting vs talking and other anti-social behaviour, this is the result.
The social media too renders just about all news, true and false, valid and invalid, inert. It's getting impossible to tell the truth from the lies, and other foreign governments with their agendas muscling in successfully, maybe politics and political leaders too are inert. Voters are becoming fed up, esp. younger voters figuring no matter for whom they vote, it won't make any difference.
Unfortunately, it seems Donald Trump has released a new kind of politician, and all I see are political newcomers following his example. That's certainly the case in Brazil, and he seems now to be a bad influence on our crime minister. It seems to work, so why not emulate success? Pepsi followed Coke, Wendy's and Burger King followed McDonald's, and Unilever followed Proctor and Gamble...and Colgate preceded those two, but Colgate did it from a "family of products" perspective, so they're a little different.
On the plus side, there is a stronger women's movement than ever before, starting circa 2017 with the Weinstein affair. Jeffrey Epstein, the coward, was next but committed suicide. Bill Cosby got his comeuppance with this movement as well.
Today, we have Black Lives Matter. Nothing new at all, really, but just a resurgence of an issue going back, AGAIN, to the 1960s with a different approach. Hopefully it won't fade away so fast. We even have professional sports teams with P.I. names of First Nations people changing their names, and now taking a knee is not as bad as it was a few years ago.
I think therein lays the hope. New ways of protesting the wrongs of the past are slowly infiltrating and circumventing the teflon dons that seem to be in power right now. The political cyber-sabotage is relatively new so again we hare hopefully now catching up and finding new ways to counteract those shenanigans.
I guess all we can do is hope for the best, unless others have better ideas. I'd love to read them!
I'm a staunch Liberal, and yet I won't hesitate to vent my anger about Trudeau, and Morneau. I held my nose and tried excusing his "blackface" mistake, but I can no longer make excuses. I'd like to see him step down and let Chrystia Freeman (?) take over. Trudeau and his family of grifters are just like the trumps.
ReplyDeleteHis handling of covid19 will probably be his ace card, for getting re-elected. I can't pinpoint what his problem is: naivete, arrogance or just a sense of entitlement; but he can't afford any more gaffes.
Deborah: What's a grifter? Did you mean grafter? BTW, it's Chrystia Freeland. So far she is far superior to the current crime minister, and perhaps she'll get her chance one day, but no way is True Dope going to step down this fast and this easily. Too, how will leadership corrupt her?
DeleteGetting back to what I wrote above, seems nobody else has anything to add to perhaps improve how we inform ourselves of what is truth vs what is bogus.
Hopefully the Tories will do better once they get rid of their weakest link.
D Bee: Thanks for the clarification. Just because I want the Liberals out doesn't make me some kind of right wing radical. Unfortunately, politics has always meant holding your nose and voting for the "best of the worst", whoever they may be. As my late father-in-law once stated, "politicians are given a license to steal", and it seems far too many of them are good at it.
DeleteYou wrote above you're a "staunch liberal", yet you're berating two of their top MPs. Who do you see as doing a good job according to what appears to be your exacting standards?
Trudeau Sr. gave himself a substantial pay raise just two days before he created the Anti-Inflation Board in 1974 capping raises at about half HIS pay raise. Mulroney was a blatant liar, a thief claiming he took that bribe from that Shreiber character at Air Bus partially because he promised his trophy wife of 14 years his junior a certain standard of living, by hook or by crook. He also spent a mint of our taxpayer dollars on giant entourages wherever he went spending lavishly on his cronies, and also gave himself an enormous tax write off by submitting pictures of his misadventures to the National Archives to get an enormous tax deduction. Too, the Mulroneys are a conniving bunch of social climbers.
His son, and especially his daughter-in-law befriended Megan Markle and put her together with the now former Prince Harry and were front and center at her wedding to Harry. Guess who was behind Meagan in the background while the equally social climbing Megan was stating her wedding vows? None other than Jessica Brownstein Mulroney, TV Ben's wife. Now Ben suddenly stepped down from his lucrative E Talk post (but not the morning show, and of course he'll be on E talk for the best events (red carpets, etc.)) I figure, unless he's genuinely tired doing two shows although Ryan Seacrest and Michael Strahan do many shows for considerably more of those almighty U.S. bucks, his social climbing wife put her foot in it and lost her stupid show. What drivel! Come to think of it, E talk shows altogether are for those who don't have lives of their own. Drivel and gibberish!
OK, enough digression. As the late Sir Winston Churchill (and former U.S. Republican senator, Fred Dalton Thompson) once said: "Democracy is the worst form of politics...except for all the rest!" Actually, Thompson paraphrased Churchill playing the role of D.A on the original Law and Order on TV.
Know a better politician or political system? I invite you to educate us!
Yes I'm a staunch Liberal, but I'm also someone who expects all politicians to be held accountable.
ReplyDeleteOf course the Conservatives have had their share of scandals: Duffy, Walking, Vernier, Brizeau, Wright, the 'In-and-out' scandal, robocalls that misdirected voters away from poll stations, and the questions raised about the money for Andrew Scheer's children. So no party or it's leader is perfect; but too many politicians seem obsessed with scamming the taxpayers, and that has to be addressed. Unfortunately, I think we all know, that they're basically all the same, and nothing will change. It's a choice between the lesser of two evils.
D Bee: Political corruption still upsets me, no doubt, but there always seems to be circumvention by political spin doctors and somehow, most of the misdeeds seem to blow over. They shouldn't, but they do, and never forget there are two justice systems: One for the rich and powerful, one for the rest of us.
ReplyDelete"You’re Better Off Rich and Guilty Than Poor and Innocent". That saying goes back to Mark Twain and it has been repeated many times since. Politicians can misappropriate millions with no consequences while some poor starving person who steals a loaf of bread can get 20 years. The probability of at least once getting pulled over by the police is 100% if you're black, much lower if you're white.
I once got pulled over in the U.S. for speeding. Boy, are American police procedures different from those in Canada. There you're automatically assumed to possess a gun until proven otherwise. I had three cars in my pursuit! THREE!. They drive singly, so I guess that's part of the reason for multiple cars + one is an interrogator while the other one or two cover the interrogator. In Canada, I've NEVER been pursued by more than one officer.
The interrogator was quite the zealot, almost accusing me of not pulling over. When asked, I explained that there are very different procedures between the U.S. and Canada in pursuits. After the officers let me go, I turned to my life partner and said to her that if we were black, I'm sure the outcome would have been much worse. My better half concurred!
There you have it: Two different justice systems. One of my university profs from years ago stated "All men are created equal, but some are created more equal than others." Well stated!
Oh, and finally, I never completed my thought re Ben Mulroney. His social climbing wife, Jessica, lost her gig that I'm sure was handed to her by connections (guess who?) and despite this special privilege, managed to put her foot deep in her mouth with a racist crack that immediately cost her her show. Some know how to climb better than others, I guess.
I dislike both Tru's immensely for different reasons. As Philip says they are like polar opposites but both incredibly incompetent poor choices to be running a country.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the alternatives dont look much better. I guess one must ask why we end up with such poor choices to be leaders? Is Biden really the best the Democrats could come up with or Andrew Scheer or even Peter Mackay and Singh? I can think of countless other people that would be far better and yet none of them want the job nor have the support.
In the end I blame the Canadians who voted for an obvious lightweight that Trudeau was. They fell for the glitz, the smile, the charm, the bs "sunny ways" and I guess its more telling of the society we have become. Most Canadians deserve the government they get and will get and what will be coming to them when TSHTF. This 350-500 billion dollar addition to the debt will cripple this country for decades and people will at one point hate the name Trudeau again..long after he is gone.
I see another crisis on the horizon brought on by reckless debt spending in the western world and weak political leaders..I see rising social upheavals as government spending has to be cut at some point..but in the end most people think Trudeau is great. I am not in that camp nor is Philip. I miss Stephen Harper..say what you want about him but he did what he said he would do..he was boring but he managed things much much better than pretty boy does.
comp, you can't say that even democracy is perfect. It is, however, the best of the worst ideologies (and they're all "the worst")! Sheer got more votes than Trudope, but flaw in our electoral system is if the votes are concentrated into too few ridings, this is the result. The same thing happened twice in Quebec over the years, and Quebec has fixed it so the Anglophone ridings have far more voters than many of the traditionally separatist ridings so Anglophone votes will be redundant unless and until the PLQ gets reelected and does electoral reforms accordingly.
DeleteInterestingly, the exact same thing happened in the U.S. in 2016. How about that for a coincidence? Too, the Republicans have ALWAYS fared well with their electoral college system, and they're doing everything they can to again take advantage, and now throw in voter suppression à la PQ back in 1980 and again in 1995. Foolish of the Dems though not to abolish the electoral college when they had their chances.
I don't think Harper would have been able to do much better in this situation. Thankfully people in Canada are spending again so hopefully the economy won't fare as badly as thought earlier. That being said, I don't care for Trudope myself...far from it, but the Francos are not going to vote Tory (all the candidates are neither Francos nor do they speak sufficient French) and neither are most newer immigrants.
The imperfection continues.
As for the killer debt levels, it's all relative, so since most countries loosened the purse strings, it's not as if one country has advantages over the others. All have a much heavier debt burden, so I imagine the respective finance ministers and World Bank and IMF prezes will meet somewhere and hash it all out. Hmmmmm...
Well I think many are far too complacent with the debt mess everyone is..because its been going on for decades and people now believe we can literally have unlimited debt. IMF/World Bank may come up with some rescue plan at some point but at what cost..will we all need to use a global currency..what else will we give up to the elites.
DeleteI think the deficit this year under Harper would have been 200 billion which is still ridiculously high. I would have given 50 billion to the nursing homes but kept everything open. We would have cut the deaths by over 50 percent..