Lawrence Martin has admitted that the title for his latest book was inspired by Rick Pearlstein's examination of the Nixon administration. However, Martin writes, Harperland is not Nixonland -- at least not yet:
Harperland is not in a league with Nixonland, certainly not on the basis of what we know now. But that doesn’t mean that the abuse of power by this government is not of an extraordinary nature. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t shadings of character and behaviour that are similar to Nixon’s.
There’s been a siege mentality at work here that calls to mind those times. We have a leader who seems incapable of escaping his brooding resentments and authoritarian urges. Many observers talk of a paranoia strain in the Harper team which has led to a reliance on the dark arts, a reliance which, in terms of volume, goes beyond anything we have seen in Ottawa as far as memory reaches.
Canada, has never been immune to the abuse of power. But, under Harper, Canada and Canadians have been treated with more contempt than ever before:
Not helping the Conservative case was their leader becoming the first prime minister to be found in contempt of parliament. It was for refusing to share basic information on program costing with parliament’s democratically-elected representatives.
Not helping was the prime minister’s instituting of an unprecedented vetting and censorship system wherein all information is controlled from the centre. Resultant muzzling stories are extraordinary. The science community is so distrusted that Harper operatives, in part of what commentator Allan Gregg sees as an Orwellian obsession, shadows distinguished scientists with chaperones – media minders as they’re called – to see they don’t step out of line.
Not helping have been many other developments. Campaigns to discredit opponents were a staple of the Nixon years and have been, though not to the same degree, of the Harper years. Targets include, to name just a few, diplomat Richard Colvin, Veterans’ affairs advocate Sean Bruyea, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, and budget officer Kevin Page. Between elections, the Harper team has brought in character-assassination advertising, much of it dishonest or out of context, to a degree far beyond what our politics has seen before.
Our prime minister is a doodle. We've never had one like him before. And the longer he stays, the more damage he does.
8 comments:
Methinks it time to ask Harper to resign:
1 Surrounds himself with delinquents/criminals who brazenly flout and break the law and then the weight of the PMO covers and or stalls any criminal action with law suits or dishonest bluster
2 More than obvious to a grade school intellect that the Prime Minister lies to us constantly and deceives us at every turn bails out wealthy banks while proclaiming he did not
3 Has contempt for Canadians our laws and our environment not to mention our scientists and citizens who oppose his tyranny
4 Instituted corporate welfare as a permanent fixture and to balance the books steals services and safety nets belonging to the citizens making us pay for the corporate grab
5 Allows Communist China to dictate policy
6 Supports Israel an aggressionist state with nuclear capability >>> “There’s a whole network of U.S. mercenary states….a massive international terrorist network run by the United States….Israel is the major one..." (4-5)quoted from Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky.
7 If you don't agree with Harper policy you are an enemy and as such can be rounded up and jailed on his whim
On sober second thought it is time to force him to resign.
South of the border they call it impeachment, Anon. To accomplish that end, though, there will have to be more Brent Rathgebers.
You don't ask him to resign. You FORCE him to resign.
Alas, too many Left-activist-leadership types are more enamoured with the smell of their own shit than with actually doing something.
They'd all rather dance around in pretend-protest than organize people.
Basically we're hoping that harper somehow implodes enough that his idiot core supporters and his next election fraud campaign isn't enough for him to win another majority.
If it turns out that he is able to keep enough seats and steal the rest to win a majority, as before, we'll all do absolutely nothing.
Admittedly, it won't be easy, thwap. But if the RCMP investigation provides evidence that he obstructed justice in the Wright-Duffy affair, he would be in an untenable position.
Harper seems to be bleeding out slowly before everyone's eyes. When Wright was forced out, Harper had to replace him with his valet who had been living in the flat above the garage at 24 Sussex Drive.
Harper is dredging the bottom for replacements of those who have fallen to PMO Black Lung Disease - Perrin, Wright, Woodcock.
What person of Nigel Wright's accomplishment and experience would take a job in Harper's PMO today? Who would put their career aside simply to watch Steve Harper bleed out?
It would be nice to think that enough Tory MPs might defect to force Harper out but they know, at this point, that a lot of them face serious trouble in the next election and they want to keep their jobs just as long as they can.
Harper would have to show up in the House without his pants before they would toss him. In the meantime his government will stumble ever deeper into dysfunction.
I know that the hope of a Conservative rebellion is whistling past the graveyard, Mound.
There is no hope that the party will turn on Harper the way Republicans turned on Nixon.
Come to think of it, there is no hope that today's Republicans would have turned on Nixon.
Harper Government = Fascism!!
In one of his posts today, astone, The Mound of Sound says the same thing.
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