Hate Trumps Love

"The civility we need will not come from 

watching our tongues. 

It will come from valuing our differences."

Parker J. Palmer

And words from Yeats:

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, 
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Prime Minister,

Your voice will become more important on the world stage now. Your job is not to preserve the traditionally strong relationship between Canada and the States; that is far secondary to remaining true to the values of a Prime Minister who went to Pearson Airport to welcome the first Syrian refugees. Be that man. That is who Canada and the world will need.

Bon courage.

BREAKING NEWS: Harper and Obama Agree to Exchange Supreme Courts

In an unprecedented move of executive cooperation, Prime Minister Harper and President Obama announced in a shared press conference this afternoon that they have agreed in principle to exchange Supreme Courts.

Pleased with the Agreement

In a move to more appropriately align the executive and judicial branches of governments, the exchange was hailed as a win-win for both countries.    

“I look forward to bringing the judicial wisdom,” said Harper, “of such men as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to Canada.” Harper had requested that U.S. Justice Sonia Sotomayor not be included in the exchange, but the Obama administration believed that this opened up the process up to unnecessary “horse-trading.”

“I think we all know” began President Obama, “that Prime Minister Harper is less than pleased with the way the Canadian Supreme Court has stymied important aspects of his agenda. And it goes without saying that the Roberts court is—how should we say this?—not particularly aligned with my vision for America.”

Harper and Obama clarified that the shift would be done in stages. Next month Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Beverley Mclachlin will switch their roles to initiate the exchange.

Ralph Nader on Why the Canadian Single-Payer System beats Obamacare

Here's Ralph's article, offered without commercial interruption:

21 Ways Canada's Single-Payer System Beats Obamacare

By Ralph Nader, The Nader Page

01 December 13

Canadian style single-payer healthcare is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal—dream on, America.

ear America:

Costly complexity is baked into Obamacare. No health insurance system is without problems but Canadian style single-payer full Medicare for all is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal.

In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson enrolled 20 million elderly Americans into Medicare in six months. There were no websites. They did it with index cards!

Below please find 21 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare.

Repeal Obamacare and replace it with the much more efficient single-payer, everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital.

Love, Canada

Number 21:
In Canada, everyone is covered automatically at birth – everybody in, nobody out.

In the United States, under Obamacare, 31 million Americans will still be uninsured by 2023 and millions more will remain underinsured.

Number 20:
In Canada, the health system is designed to put people, not profits, first.

In the United States, Obamacare will do little to curb insurance industry profits and will actually enhance insurance industry profits.

Number 19:
In Canada, coverage is not tied to a job or dependent on your income – rich and poor are in the same system, the best guaranty of quality.

In the United States, under Obamacare, much still depends on your job or income. Lose your job or lose your income, and you might lose your existing health insurance or have to settle for lesser coverage.

Number 18:
In Canada, health care coverage stays with you for your entire life.

In the United States, under Obamacare, for tens of millions of Americans, health care coverage stays with you for as long as you can afford your share.

Number 17:
In Canada, you can freely choose your doctors and hospitals and keep them. There are no lists of “in-network” vendors and no extra hidden charges for going “out of network.”

In the United States, under Obamacare, the in-network list of places where you can get treated is shrinking – thus restricting freedom of choice – and if you want to go out of network, you pay for it.

Number 16:
In Canada, the health care system is funded by income, sales and corporate taxes that, combined, are much lower than what Americans pay in premiums.

In the United States, under Obamacare, for thousands of Americans, it’s pay or die – if you can’t pay, you die. That’s why many thousands will still die every year under Obamacare from lack of health insurance to get diagnosed and treated in time.

Number 15:
In Canada, there are no complex hospital or doctor bills. In fact, usually you don’t even see a bill.

In the United States, under Obamacare, hospital and doctor bills will still be terribly complex, making it impossible to discover the many costly overcharges.

Number 14:
In Canada, costs are controlled. Canada pays 10 percent of its GDP for its health care system, covering everyone.

In the United States, under Obamacare, costs continue to skyrocket. The U.S. currently pays 18 percent of its GDP and still doesn’t cover tens of millions of people.

Number 13:
In Canada, it is unheard of for anyone to go bankrupt due to health care costs.

In the United States, under Obamacare, health care driven bankruptcy will continue to plague Americans.

Number 12:
In Canada, simplicity leads to major savings in administrative costs and overhead.

In the United States, under Obamacare, complexity will lead to ratcheting up administrative costs and overhead.

Number 11:
In Canada, when you go to a doctor or hospital the first thing they ask you is: “What’s wrong?”

In the United States, the first thing they ask you is: “What kind of insurance do you have?”

Number 10:
In Canada, the government negotiates drug prices so they are more affordable.

In the United States, under Obamacare, Congress made it specifically illegal for the government to negotiate drug prices for volume purchases, so they remain unaffordable.

Number 9:
In Canada, the government health care funds are not profitably diverted to the top one percent.

In the United States, under Obamacare, health care funds will continue to flow to the top. In 2012, CEOs at six of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. received a total of $83.3 million in pay, plus benefits.

Number 8:
In Canada, there are no necessary co-pays or deductibles.

In the United States, under Obamacare, the deductibles and co-pays will continue to be unaffordable for many millions of Americans.

Number 7:
In Canada, the health care system contributes to social solidarity and national pride.

In the United States, Obamacare is divisive, with rich and poor in different systems and tens of millions left out or with sorely limited benefits.

Number 6:
In Canada, delays in health care are not due to the cost of insurance.

In the United States, under Obamacare, patients without health insurance or who are underinsured will continue to delay or forgo care and put their lives at risk.

Number 5:
In Canada, nobody dies due to lack of health insurance.

In the United States, under Obamacare, many thousands will continue to die every year due to lack of health insurance.

Number 4:
In Canada, an increasing majority supports their health care system, which costs half as much, per person, as in the United States. And in Canada, everyone is covered.

In the United States, a majority – many for different reasons – oppose Obamacare.

Number 3:
In Canada, the tax payments to fund the health care system are progressive – the lowest 20 percent pays 6 percent of income into the system while the highest 20 percent pays 8 percent.

In the United States, under Obamacare, the poor pay a larger share of their income for health care than the affluent.

Number 2:
In Canada, the administration of the system is simple. You get a health care card when you are born. And you swipe it when you go to a doctor or hospital. End of story.

In the United States, Obamacare’s 2,500 pages plus regulations (the Canadian Medicare Bill was 13 pages) is so complex that then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said before passage “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

Number 1:
In Canada, the majority of citizens love their health care system.

In the United States, the majority of citizens, physicians, and nurses prefer the Canadian type system – single-payer, free choice of doctor and hospital , everybody in, nobody out.

One Big, Bad Ass Rock

As fear of a terrorist attack subsides in the States, the search for The Next American Fear has finally been solved. Not yet a reality tv show, The Next American Fear has had a number of contenders. Serial killers have frequently been on the docket. Another recession has, of course, been eager to rise up from mere chronic anxiety to claim the big title. Even the recent asteroid that lit up a town in Russia seemed about to triumph. But make no mistake, a clear winner has now popped up right under our feet. Ladies and gentleman, fear of—look out!!—sinkholes has the U.S in its grip.

From that poor bloke in Tampa whose bedroom disappeared with him in it to a 43-year-old mortgage broker who was swallowed (w)hole while golfing in Illinois to the U.S congress where compromise and common sense haven’t surfaced in years, sinkholes seem to be everywhere. A 9 acre sinkhole appeared in Assumption Parrish, Lousiana, and a 17 foot deep sinkhole got rave reviews in Mount Holyhoke, Massachusetts.

This is great news to Canadians, who finally have confirmation in their belief that the U.S. has long been a sinkhole eager to bury Canadian independence and culture and healthcare and….But Canadians need not fret. It just so happens that geologists have recently declared much of Canada nearly sinkhole-proof. From the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, Canada has a great layer of igneous rock acting as a vast, unyielding—you guessed it!—sinkhole shield. 

So far as I know, no one has ever called it the sinkhole shield; rather, it is known as the more prosaic Canadian Shield. And ever since I have been up here, no one has been able to tell me, in plain, straightforward English, what exactly it’s shielding us from. Until now.

My inquiry, I realize, was thwarted by a single assumption. Shields, I had assumed, tend to be above us. As an example, I offer the Missile Defense Shield, birthed in the deep recesses of the Reagan brain to address one of the all-time big winners of The Next American Fear (with an honored spot in the American Fear Hall of Fame).* But the Canadian Shield is down there, at our feet, watching over us, or in this case, under us. Low and beholed,  Canadians need not fear being gobbled up in the bowels of the earth,  and it's due to one big, bad ass rock.

So my apprehensive fellow Americans, I suggest you relocate north of the 49^th parallel. Canada is the cure to your latest fear. Come on up before it’s too late, yikes, looook out, oh nooooo…

* past winners include natives, negroes, alcohol, communism, blacks, Fidel, hippies, drugs, deficits, Hussein, Muslims, presidents born in Kenya…

Inaugural Balls and Oaths of Office

I was invited to an inaugural ball! Little ole me.

Unfortunately it wasn’t one where the first couple would grace us with their presence. No, this ball was called Ottawa’s Second Inaugural Ball. The invitation was “calling all Democrats Abroad in Ottawa-Gatineau (and their friends)” and urging us “to celebrate this historic event with fellow Americans, dual citizens, and their Canadian friends.” I have a sneaky suspicion that there might have been more parties in Canada for Obama's recent victory than for Harper when he won the last election.  And even if there weren’t, tell me, which would you rather go to, an Obama party or a Harper party?...Me too.

Not knowing about this “Democrats Abroad” group, I did some surfing and found its on-line home: https://www.democratsabroad.org/. It has a drop down menu to select your country and, once at Canada’s page, you'll find ten Canadian chapters. The global head of the organization, Ken Sherman, is even based in Canada and looks like a kind-hearted former hippie. The U.S. being the U.S., it’s not a big leap to assume there is an equivalent group for the Republicans. Why would one party cede those overseas votes to the other? No sirree, THAT would be un-American.

And so there is: Republicans Abroad  with a Canadian chapter http://www.republicansabroad.ca. I’m glad to say they didn’t have an Inaugural party but they did have an election night party and its invitation is available on their website as a downloadable PDF. Republicans Abroad listed its election night party as having a start time of 7:30 pm and then stated the party’s end time in bold letters When a Romney victory is declared! I might be wrong, but doesn’t that mean they’re still partying? Their party, by the way, cost 20 bucks at the door; the Democrats inaugural party cost 4 bucks and proceeds go to the band. I dunno but maybe that’s why the Democrats won, people can afford their parties.

     *             *             *             *             *

I confess I didn’t watch this inauguration. I earned my stripes by going to the last one and didn’t need to earn my stars by paying attention to this one. The change we can believe in never happened and I figure that if he could disappoint all those people who were on the mall four years ago, my presence—live or sitting in front of the tv—wouldn’t make a difference this time. I figure he had a four year presidential apprenticeship and now he’s got two years to make things happen. I’m pulling for the man. I really am.

Plus, how can you not root for a guy who decides to get sworn in on 3 Bibles. That must be one serious oath. I read that he was sworn in on Lincoln’s Bible, Martin Luther King’s Bible and the Obama family Bible (by the way, isn’t that called the Koran?*) Anywho, that has me wondering what happens with a new Prime Minister of Canada?  Does he take an oath? I’ve been up here twenty years and I don’t have a clue. It just isn’t a big deal. The Prez of the U.S. is, on certain occasions, a kind of sacred, symbolic God-King prone to be treated like dog-meat the rest of the year. But the PM, he’s a kind of bureaucratic, intelligent, schlemiel who oversees the party that got the most votes. Do we really care how he gets sworn in?

Here’s what it says on the Governor General’s website:
The Oath of Office is administered to the prime minister designate by the Clerk of the Privy Council at the commencement of the swearing-in ceremony. The prime minister, the governor general and the Clerk of the Privy Council sign the Privy Council Oath Book. If the prime minister designate is not a member of the Privy Council (Privy Councillor) he or she will be sworn in as a member of the Privy Council before the Oath of Office is administered.
Well, boys and girls, I can’t wait to go either! And just think, we can even watch it again on Youtube.

What keeps me awake at night is wondering which 3 items the Prime Minister of Canada should use at the swearing-in ceremony. The first one is obvious: a new Prime Minister simply has to be sworn in holding the NHL Rules Book. After that, it’s a toss-up. The Articles of Confederation? A Hudson’s Bay blanket? The Charter of Rights and Freedoms? A novel by Mordecai Richler or a bra of Pamela Anderson’s? A plate of poutine? A photo of the Avro Arrow? Leonard Cohen’s guitar? The possibilities are endless. Just not a Bible. That much is clear. Thank God.

*okay, so I’ll admit he’s Christian, but he was born in Kenya.

Where the Deer and the Antelope Roam

On my way down to South America, I change flights in Toronto. In the terminal I take out my iphone to catch up on the news. Roaming fees? Well, what do you know—there’s free airport wi-fi. Ten days later on my way back, I have a long layover in the Miami airport. I take out my iphone to catch up on the news, ready to tap into the free airport wi-fi. Instead I find an invitation to pay a local provider to have access to their network. “Never!” I cry (not out loud thankfully, though I do think a little “arrgh” might have escaped my lips), “for I am an ex-American Canadian who expects free airport wi-fi!” My smug indignation takes hold, as America proves once again it is about nothing more than the almighty dollar. I’ll show America, I think.

So I call my service provider in Canada, Rogers, to buy a roaming package. I explain my situation to the customer service rep who tells me I must be wrong and that the Miami airport must have free wi-fi. Maybe I need to walk, he suggests, to a different place in the terminal to be able to pick up the free connection. I walk and talk convincing him that, no, the Miami airport does not offer free wi-fi. He’s dumbfounded. He offers me a roaming package that’s a bit more expensive than the hook up to the airport wi-fi provider. I purchase it to support my Canadian company and to show America that free airport wi-fi is a right and I will not collude in an American system that tries to extract money from helpless Canadian travelers!

Feeling self-righteous, I catch up on some Canadian news on my iphone and then decide to do some strolling around the terminal. I see several ads for cellphone providers. I recall that when my American friend comes up to Canada he never worries about his roaming fees the way I do when I go down to the States. American cellphone carriers have tolerable roaming fees. Canadian companies don’t. How do you know which foreign tourist is the Canadian, the joke asks. He’s the one not using his cellphone. But here I was, having just bought a Canadian roaming package and colluding in a Canadian system that tries to extract money from helpless Canadian travelers!

In fact, lets admit it: Americans pay a whole lot less for their cellphone usage than Canadians. Why? Because the cellphone space in the States is a competitive market. In Canada it’s sort of, well, okay, maybe it’s a bit competitive, kind of. No it isn’t. You need one hand to count the cellphone players in Canada. But hey, we do have that free airport wi-fi.

And that’s the point, isn’t it? Canada has this abiding belief in the role of a public space with equal access for all. Free airport wi-fi fits with that belief. The Rogers customer service rep cannot believe there’s no free airport wi-fi even as he collects his paycheck from a company that charges ridiculous fees for its cellphone service. America’s belief in a public space has been dwindling and under attack for years. It doesn’t matter if you’re home, home on the range, there’s no free wi-fi where the deer and the antelope roam, but its user fees are significantly less. On this difference, I’ll side with the deer and the antelope.

Surviving the War of 1812

Whew! We survived it.

Yes, the 200^th anniversary of the War of 1812 is finally finished. No more tv commercials of historical re-enactments. No more ads by the Canadian War Museum.  The government apparently spent upwards of 20 million dollars from those “hard working Canadian taxpayers” they so admire to advertise the anniversary of the war, er, I mean the great Canadian victory over the American invaders.  The question now becomes "what’s next?".

Deep in the halls of the conservative government, in a small, unknown department called the Program for Upping Canadian Konfidence (P.U.C.K., for short) bureaucrats are hard at work.  Well-funded but off the rink, er, I mean radar, PUCK is scouting for the next big thing to punch up Canadian nationalism to new heights.   With the Vancouver winter Olympics, the summer games and the anniversary of The War of 1812 all in the past, PUCK bureaucrats are suffering a drop in morale. They know how hard it is to inject testosterone into the mild-mannered body politic of Canada.

The Sochi Winter Games are coming but that’s not enough. As one source within PUCK put it, “we just can’t drag ourselves from one Olympics to the next to kick start Canadian pride. We need something else. The War of 1812 was a gold mine but that’s…hey, wait a minute. Wait just a minute. Gold mine? Gold,  Mining, Canada! When it comes to mining, we rock!” He quickly disappeared down the hall lined with portraits of CFL (Canadian Football League) stars.

A former Olympian who now works at PUCK complained of having to “continually oil the engine of Canadian patriotism. Why do we let other countries flex their muscles and throw sand in our face?” Then he mumbled, “Oil, oil…sand…hmm.”  Suddenly you could see his eyes light up, “Cenovus! They have it right. Our country IS spelled with a “can” and not a “can’t. The Oil Sands ARE Canadian tenacity!”  He positively ran down the hall, the one filled with portraits of actors who made it big in Hollywood, past a smiling Jim Carrey on the right opposite a roguish William Shatner as Captain Kirk (how’s that for a Canadian hero!),  and Lorne Greene in Bonanza opposite a young Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future where he proved that Canadians really can skateboard as well as any American, regardless of their acting talent.

So you brave band of northern peoples, it won’t be long now. Sooner rather than later, PUCK will find the net and bring us a moment of Canadian pride we can’t possibly avoid even if we wanted to. And that’s your tax dollars hard at work.

NOTE:To see a government advertisement promoting the War of 1812, go here:  The Fight for Canada
To see a debate on whether or not The War of 1812 was overhyped, go here: The War of 1812 Debate
To see Cenovus’s ad on the Oil Sands, go here: Cenovus Oil Sands Ad

CEGEP! C...whaaat?

CEGEP!  CEGEP stands for Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel.  There’s where my 18 year-old son was in school this past year, while his 18 year-old cousins in the States were in their senior year of high school.  This isn’t another post about how Canada is different from the States but how Quebec is different from the rest of North America, or to be more Quebec-centric, how French-speaking North America differs from the rest of English-speaking North America (my apologies to any other far-flung francophone outposts in North America).

My son graduated from high school after his 11^th grade year. To be honest, I had a hard time getting my head around it. What happens to the 12^th grade? Where does it go? And why? I remembered who I was after my 11^th grade year (as in NOT ready for college), and recalled what a great time my senior year was, especially the last half when it was all downhill towards graduation. Quebec was going to deprive my son of this well-earned Rite of Passage. 

My perspective, however, has changed. All hail CEGEP! The truth is that high school, sadly, can be an awfully boring place. Young adults are treated as children, their weekday lives dictated by a set of bells, with rules in place to constrain their childish outbursts (which, I hypothesize, are generated by the very fact of being treated as children). Suddenly, CEGEP entered my son’s life and treated him as an adult. He had a class schedule like any college student, 3 hours one day, 2 the next, etc. No study period. No weekend detentions for bad behavior. And voila! A bright kid, bored to tears by high school, began doing phenomenally well…and sustained it throughout the year. He has one more year in his CEGEP before going on to 3 years at a University.

To be clear, I’m not saying that my son’s 12^th year of education was better than his cousins, but it surely was different. And it worked for my son, and apparently for a lot of young people.  I’ve informally been polling adults who went through the CEGEP experience and they are universally positive in their praise of the system.  The irony in all this is that the idea for the CEGEP came from the States.  When CEGEPs were first created in the 60’s, they were modelled after the Junior Colleges in the States. Quebec stole the idea, and improved it. Way to go, Quebec!

Let's Change the Date of Canada Day

NOTE: A much shorter version of this article appeared in a Canadian newspaper today

It was a mere ten years ago that I became a Canadian. All my American friends were calling up and asking how I did it and could they do the same and was I allowed to sponsor them. I thought I was lucky, having escaped the American empire just as it began losing its way entirely. How things have changed in those ten years! Here I am, now feeling fully Canadian just as Canada is starting to feel American. My suggestion is that you go whole hog. Celebrate Canada Day on July 4th! What’s a few days wait after all, especially if it means you’ll be able to express your emerging national spirit. The inner American in you is waiting to burst forth. Here are 8 ways you’re becoming American:

Electoral Shenanigans: In the States, isn’t the essence of the country “baseball, apple pie and…voter suppression”? From poll taxes to literacy tests to I.D. screening, voter suppression is a high art and abiding practice south of the border. And now Canada finally has its very own example up here! Okay, it was a bit small-townish—nobody was kicked off the voters list--and I’m not sure anybody is quaking in their boots when Elections Canada rides in with guns a-holstered. But still, it’s a start.

The Business of Canada: We all know what the business of America is. No news there. But Canada? You’ve muddled along with your regulations and your taxes and your natural resources, making a buck where you could, preserving the social safety net and not particularly concerned about becoming world beaters. Productivity has never been job #1, not when a 3-day weekend was just around the corner! But now, gee willikers, you have all this talk about the private sector and becoming a global energy superpower, “simplifying” regulations and oversight, and looking for pardners the world over. Who’s that riding into town? Why it’s one of them Canadian Job Creators, unfettered and free.

Science Schmience: After the war on poverty and the war on drugs, my home sweet home took no prisoners when it came to the war on science. Now Canada’s really stepping up to the plate too. You’re gutting scientific endeavors like their sockeye salmon, from the health of the fisheries to pollution in the Arctic. You’re even putting a muzzle on scientists who speak to the media. If the world’s going to hell in a hand basket, do we really need government scientists to go to conferences and remind us? Not on my Loonie.

Prisoners: Take no prisoners. It’s a good line but it has nothing to do with the home of the brave and the land of the free. Nope. The Land of the Free takes more prisoners than any other place in the world, both per capita and total. Canada? You’re nowhere. You don’t make the top ten. Heck, you don’t even make the top 20. You may, given your population, never be able to compete with the total number of prisoners, but there’s no reason you can’t be competitive with that per capita stuff. You’ve got the omnibus crime bill as your ace up the sleeve and it shouldn’t take long for you to be competitive. Look in your rear view mirror, America; Canada’s coming up fast.

The Podium: Talking of competition, those salivating, competition-crazed, we’re-number-one screaming neighbours to the south think they have a lock on Olympic glory. They’ve known for years that Olympic medals are not so much won as bought, and if Americans specialize in anything, it’s buying. Cars, votes, medals, you name it! But deny Canada no longer, world. You too will OWN the podium, pouring bucks into shaving a few milliseconds off that race, so your national pride can soar and you too can demonstrate some solid jingoism and in-your-face swagger. A small investment for such a large return.

The Military: Talking about patriotism, what do you want, peace keepers or the real deal? Blue helmets or soldiers who can bring it? I’d say you’re turning towards the real deal. Canada wants to be locked and loaded and ready to deploy, like a good marine. Their equipment? Let’s give ‘em the best. Okay, so that can be a bit of a messy ball of wax, I mean, cash. After all, you know the tale about the $10,000 U.S. military toilet bowl seat, or something like that; well, that’s what happens with procurement. But if you’re chasing America and procurement is one thing that the U.S. military does regularly (and you would too if you had a budget like that), then you’d best keep up with the Joneses and procure some fighter jets for um, er, how much exactly?

Unions: Is it possible that unions in America are no longer even on the run because they no longer matter? Do presidential candidates pursue the union vote above all else? Hardly. Ever since Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controllers union back in the 80’s, unions in the States have become a shadow of their former selves. And who, may I ask, is aggressively courting the union vote in Canada? Exactly. And think about the poor Air Canada employees. They can’t catch a break if they want to. The truth is that it seems like they’ve secretly been government employees for years without belonging to PSAC (Public Service Alliance of Canada); so, in other words, they’re screwed. How do you say “air traffic controllers”?

Lecturing the World: This is a biggie. America has been doing it for so long it doesn’t even know it does it. The rest of the world has been listening for so long they don’t even bother to roll their eyes anymore. What’s another lecture from Dad anyway? Now Canada is starting to want a few minutes of airtime to let everyone know what’s what. After all, you’ve got the banks and balance sheet to point a finger at all those irresponsible profligates who lack discipline and proper Canadian priorities. Listen up, United Nations; pay attention, World Economic Forum, here’s the deal…Who knew, during all those years living next to the elephant, you were actually learning how to raise your trunk and honk! Damn, you’re good.

 So there you have it. Canada, you’ve become as American as apple pie. With military mojo and business bravado and prisons a-poppin, you’ve stopped sitting at the master’s feet to claim your manifest destiny. And to make it clear that the new kid on the block is no longer a kid, why don’t you take over July 4th and own it too. Canada, leave aside this July 1st, give it a rest, and then on July 4th show your true colours and celebrate the new American you!

 What would you do with July 1st, you ask? It is still a holiday, after all. Well, if you insist, why don’t you use it as a day for quiet reflection and reminiscence. You could talk about the Canada you knew and loved, and about what a fine country it was. That would be a conversation worth having, prior to the big bash.

Voter Suppression Canada

The good news about having the Republican Party governing from Parliament Hill is that Canada gets to have its own voter suppression scandal. Yes, that’s right. Ring-Ring: "Wanna vote? Unfortunately your polling station is too busy , please go vote somewhere else, somewhere far far away, we recommend the Planet Tatooine." Yes, Canadian voters of a liberal bent received calls during the May 2011 election telling them their polling station had been relocated. Elections Canada, aided by the RCMP, is now investigating and the Republi, oops, I mean, er, Conservatives are in plausible deniability mode.

Of course we’re just rookies in the game compared to our southern neightbours. The U.S has a lengthy history of voter suppression strategies, from poll taxes to literacy tests to current efforts by States to require valid photo I.D.s to register to vote. The photo I.D. efforts are being done to “ensure the sanctity of the vote,” said Sam Brownback, the Governor of Kansas, demonstrating his apparent lack of concern for the 620,000 Kansas residents who, according to the NY Times,lack a government ID. Meanwhile the 2011 bill in Texas pushing for photo I.D.s won’t recognize—you just gotta love this!—student I.D.s but will recognize handgun licenses. Giddy-up, shoot ‘em up, vote ‘em up. Rawhide.

Canada? There just ain’t a whole lot of voter suppression history up here. While we do have the possibility of catching up and creating our very own Canadian culture around voter suppression, there are some structural challenges that have to be acknowledged. In the States, many of the election officials are themselves partisan, elected candidates. Yikes! And the elections are funded locally, so some jurisdictions simply don’t have sufficient funds—similar to education--to do a good job. Despite these obvious advantages that the U.S. has over Canadian voter suppression strategies, Harper’s Conservatives are a diligent bunch and won’t take high voter turn-out lying down. No siree. Ethics aren’t in the way. They’ve already pleaded guilty to funnelling money illegally to support tv advertising during 2006 campaign. They’ve got the robo calls happening. And damn, if Harper hadn’t canned the long gun registry he could’ve used those I.D.s to target his kind of voters. He must be kicking himself. Wanna vote? Show me that long gun license, pardner.

Clint and Bruce

Something about the Super Bowl always sucks me in. It’s the essential experience of Brand America. And nowhere was Brand America more on display than in the Chrysler half-time commercial featuring Clint Eastwood letting us know it’s half-time in America...and we’re all scared because this isn’t a game. But, not to worry, if Detroit has bounced back then so can America. Why? Because that’s what we do, we find a way through tough times and if we can’t find one, then we make one.

Now that’s what I call speaking to the zeitgeist of America. I can’t say if America knows it has a zeitgeist but the Creatives who hired Clint know it does. And so does Bruce. He’s just uploaded a song from his new album, Wrecking Ball. It’s called We Take Care of Our Own. It’s classic Springsteen, a danceable guitar lick that draws you in and holds on, as Bruce’s rough voice talks about stumbling on good hearts turned to stone and scenes from hardscrabble America move by. Then the refrain comes in, over and over: we take care of our own, we take care of our own, we take care of our own.

What to make of this? Well, I’d say the good news is America is admitting it’s broke, broken, beaten. And if, as they say, the first step to recovery is admitting the problem, step one is underway. Then again, I have another voice that says “what utter horseshit” (W.U.H., for short). Half-time? The game is over and you lost. You were best in the league in the 20th century but, hey, you had some pathetic general managers of late who drove the franchise into the ground. And as to taking care of your own? Since when?

The latest news I know about taking care of your own is this one: federal law has barred troops from suing the government for any injuries they suffer as a result of malpractice in military medical facilities, no matter how negligent or egregious the error. That’s been in place for years actually, but now they’re extending it to spouses and children of troops. You’d think that when it comes to taking care of our own, Veterans would be the one class of citizens for whom the statement would be true.* And I know I don’t need to talk about how many uninsured Americans there are, blah blah blah, so I won’t. Let’s just say the only way I can understand Bruce singing We Take Care of Our Own in the same way I understand companies that declare Our People Are Our Most Valuable Asset—it’s aspirational. We’d like to act in ways that confirm the statement and we’re sorry we don’t, but we are trying, really, we are.

And so, even if it’s not half-time in America, we want to act like it is. We want to dust ourselves off and believe there’s a whole lot of game left in us and, even more importantly, there’s plenty of time on the clock. And if Madison Avenue (this time it was Weiden and Kennedy actually, headquartered in Portland, Oregon) simply keeps telling us, we’ll come to believe it. And who knows, it may just come true. Right?

*In truth, Canada’s not much better. Back in November, this was the news: Canada's veterans who think they were poisoned in the 1991 Gulf War and in the Balkans can't trust the government when it says they're fine, said scientists at an international conference.

Chit Chat with Europeans and the Marginal Return on Investment

An old friend sends an email he titles "Chit Chat with Europeans" in which he writes:

At a conference in Hamburg there was a pleasant reception at the US Consulate General's, [except for the] overly rigorous American security which the Canadian and New Zealand diplomats thought was funny.

Yes. Laughter as an anti-dote to insanity. I confess sometimes I want to sneak up on the scores of overly earnest American security screeners and suddenly yell ‘boo!” or “nail-clipper!” or “liquid container greater than 3.4oz!”...or, worst of all, "anarchist hacker!"

Whoever thought security screening would become America’s dominant jobs strategy?* If one million dollars buys us security, then one hundred million dollars will buy us even more, right? At some point in the security business, the marginal return on investment has to click in.

Unfortunately when I go online to find out how to calculate the marginal return on investment, I get this:

Q=(2x)³•(3y)²•(8z)² =4608•x³•y²•z²
Px
Py
Pz
Profit=∏=TR-TC
TR=PQ
TC=xPx+yPy+zPz
For simple model without discounting and Δx→0 we can assume:
ROI = (TR-TC)/TC = ∏/TC = TR/TC -1
MROIx=∂ROI/∂x

I have no idea what this means. That’s likely because I’m a product of the American educational system, as is most everyone else in the county which, I suppose, means there’s hardly anyone who can calculate the marginal return on investment. They simply don’t know that spending another 100 million dollars on security doesn’t buy you 100 million dollars more in security. Otherwise they’d stop. Wouldn’t they? Can someone translate that calculation into plain English and send it to the Department of Homeland Security?** Please.

*Why else would there be 158 academic institutions offering degrees in security: http://www.gradschools.com/search-programs/security-management

**You can see DHS Budget in Brief (183 pages!) here: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/budget-bib-fy2012.pdf

Race To The Bottom

September, and both Obama and Harper seem to be playing “who can gut the environment faster?” Obama gutted the EPA’s smog standards; Harper, Canada’s ozone monitoring.

Harper’s actions are expected. The only tree he ever hugged was an oak when he was seven and playing hide and seek. Obama, on the other hand, actually made promises on the environment. Wasn’t he the man who was going to bring science back into environmental policy? Then again, he never said that science would trump the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber unveiled what it believed to be the real dangers of the EPA's smog standards: seven million jobs could be lost and one billion in compliance costs spent by 2020. Hey Mr. President, whaddya think the American people want, jobs or clean air? Geez, when you put it that way, well, sure, jobs I guess.

As to Harper, he’s ending funding for the network of monitoring stations in the arctic that monitor the ozone layer. Environment Canada is also going to stop maintaining its Toronto-based World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre used by researchers around the world. For those in the know about the science, these cuts are nothing short of a disaster for us being able to understand the complexity of what’s happening to our planet. For Harper, who has always been enamoured with removing information from policy, what we don’t know can’t hurt us.

If the race to the bottom is similar (after all, the main component of smog is ozone), the news cycle about these stories isn’t. Obama’s decision was big news. Certain media outlets raked Obama over hot coals (rumour has it that they’ve been getting steadily hotter during the past thirty years). Keith Olbermann went ballistic, editorials appeared in major paper condemning the President’s action, the decision mattered. In Canada, Harper’s actions hardly saw the light of day.

Environment Canada? There will be more cuts to come. Harper may have come around and agreed there’s global warming, but hey, if we lose the ability to measure it, who can be sure in what direction it’s trending. Years from now Environment Canada might be one guy with a thermometer who sticks his wet finger into the wind and gives us the weather report.

After Jack Layton: What Might Have Been

There was hardly a mention of Jack Layton’s too early death south of the border, so far as I can tell. The outpouring of grief in Canada didn’t seem to trickle into the traditional American media in any significant way. Not surprising. It was somewhat bigger news in the Huffington Post and The Daily Beast. In the wake of his death, the what-might-have-been that most saddens me is his absence from American awareness.

Canadian Prime Ministers, never mind leaders of the official opposition, don’t get much air time in the States. The U.S., after all, is mostly exposed to “All America, All the Time.” A charismatic left-leaning politician from the Great White North isn’t particularly newsworthy. That said, the potential was there, had he lived, for it to be different.

And I was looking forward to that difference. I’m not sure who speaks compellingly for the left in America’s political class anymore. Dennis Kucinich remains out there, but few would describe him as compelling. Most of us would probably jump up and say John Stewart. Oh, that’s right, he’s in comedy. Paul Krugman? Oops, he’s journalism. No, there’s no one I know, at least not from up here.

I like to think Jack, as the first post-Harper Prime Minister, would have had a salutary effect on the left in America. Imagine a Canadian Prime Minister who is entirely likeable, passionately principled but neither obstinate nor impractical, who wears his idealism on his sleeve and achieved power without resorting to attack ads.

Ah, if only. The American left currently seems unable to find its footing, at least in the current moment. And yet north of their border, Canada had a man from the New Democratic Party sweep into the official opposition. He was destined to bring them into power. And then, by George, you’d have it: a genuine party of the left running the country that shares a 5,525 mile border with America.

I would have loved to have seen him on Fox News, his warm, engaging manner, paired with his passionately principled positions, rendering their news anchors as mean-spirited as they are. He might have even created a crack in the American left for one of their own to rise up and speak truth and stand courageously. America would have found itself wanting what he so winningly embodied (in the same way many of us in the States during the Nixon years looked north, with envy, at Trudeau).

But it’s not to be. And it is a loss to America that America will never know.

Canada Day 2011

Since Canada doesn’t mandate a “State of the Federation Address,” I thought I would use today to report back to the people (or at least to the 8 who say they follow this blog!).

We have a majority conservative government doing very important things. Today we learned that they are mandating the military to have a significant role in Canadian Citizenship ceremonies. A military person will be seated next to the citizenship judge, be able to give a three minute speech (not to be missed!) and shake the hands of the new citizens in a receiving line. Ah yes, the changes a visionary Prime Minister can accomplish!

I regret to say I am only half tongue in cheek. Harper is brilliant at instituting changes that look small but aren’t. He is the politician informed by the butterfly effect—a single salute over at the citizenship ceremony creates a hurricane in the consciousness of Canadians. It may take awhile, but long after he’s left office, we will feel the effects.

And what isn’t a symbolic change often has real substance that never makes it onto the media radar in any meaningful way. Just before the election, the Government gutted the enforcement power of the group that regulates food labels. The legislation still says companies have to label, but the government is now unable to enforce it. Ah yes, the changes an ideological Prime Minister can accomplish!

Of course, the omnibus crime bill will bring in American-style changes to the criminal justice system just as America has realized its system of punishment not only hasn’t been working but is also no longer affordable. But why let that get in the way of Canada moving forward to protect the rights of victims? Harper likes victims, which could be admirable if only he didn't go around imagining more of them than actually exist or work so hard to convince us we're all endanger of becoming one unless he protects us.

Canada's real victims did have an important gathering this past week in Inuvik. Canada’s own Truth and Reconciliation Commission went to the north to give witness to the impact of the residential schools on northern children during the years of forced assimilation. The government created the conditions that lead to so much pain and suffering, and it is now appropriately asking for stories from that sad chapter to be told.

Whether the Canadian postal workers who were just ordered back to work are victims or not depends on one’s politics. To the new official opposition, the New Democratic Party, they clearly are, and therefore the party filibustered to prevent the Government from sending them back to work. Legislating the end of the strike after less than two weeks does seem a bit hasty; then again, if the strike had gone on much longer, Canadians might have had the chance to realize the extent to which effective technology has rendered the postal service less and less relevant. When was the last time I licked an envelope? I think, in an odd turn of events, Harper likely helped the postal workers, whose strike may not have been in their own best interest. Perhaps they should read about the demise of the Pony Express.

Speaking of demise,(what a segue!)the Canadian base in Afghanistan is being transferred over to the Americans, and Canadian soldiers are celebrating their last Canada Day in Kandahar. I am one who believes there never should have been a first day in Kandahar; this last one is long overdue. It was a mistaken deployment. And twenty years from now, if not sooner, we will understand that it was an utterly worthless commitment of lives.(Consider this my 2011 Canada Day prediction.)

And to end in a flurry of good news, let’s not forget that it wasn’t long ago that Arcade Fire won the Grammy for best album, a Canadian who avoided his destiny to be a puck-head was somehow picked 4th in the NBA draft, the rights of gays and lesbians to marry was included in the latest revision to the citizenship guide, and Kate and William are in town on a glorious July day, throwing monarchists and celebrity-watchers into various states of jubilation.

(A unique version of Oh Canada by Asani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqPwjwmDWgQ)

Canadian Election

When I first moved north and experienced a Canadian election, I was bowled over. Short, focused, not breaking the bank, they were an exercise in concision and execution. This one, however, has me rethinking.

I’m not claiming the interminable election cycle of the States is the right model, but there must be some option we could imagine between the two extremes, where candidates aren’t forever campaigning on the one hand or candidates forced, on the other hand, to get their message out in a short six weeks that doesn’t adequately reveal what their made of.

Canada’s election isn’t long enough to smoke out the pretense, to unwind the spin, and give people a chance to understand the implications of what’s being said. The country has no time to catch its breath before voting. Ready, set, go vote. Like in a basketball game (oops, wrong sport), the winning team is the one who has the momentum.

***********************************

I started this blog originally because I was so shocked that Canadians didn’t understand their own system of government. The Prime Minister, who was pro-roguing Parliament to prevent a coalition, had somehow advanced the notion that he’d been directly elected Prime Minister by the people, as if he were a President. Well, now the chickens have come home to roost.

With everyone thinking they are electing a Prime Minister, people are voting for whom they like best, and that seems to be Jack Layton, the avuncular head of the New Democratic Party. The quality of the local candidates hardly seems to matter.

And yet, there’s something to love about this development. For those who see Harper as evil incarnate, he’s now reaping what he’s sown. Having planted the idea that the Prime Minister is really a President and doesn’t serve at the will of Parliament, Harper is discovering that Canadians are now voting that way, and he is suffering for it. Ah yes, what goes around comes around. Act like a President, and maybe you’ll be defeated like one.

************************************

Meanwhile south of the border where its always morning in America, Democracy is on the skids. This from the editorial in the NY Times of April 27:

Less than a year before the 2012 presidential voting begins, Republican legislatures and governors across the country are rewriting voting laws to make it much harder for the young, the poor and African-Americans - groups that typically vote Democratic - to cast a ballot.

Spreading fear of a nonexistent flood of voter fraud, they are demanding that citizens be required to show a government-issued identification before they are allowed to vote. Republicans have been pushing these changes for years, but now more than two-thirds of the states have adopted or are considering such laws.

The ongoing problem for Democracy continues to be that it is difficult to find democrats. After all, once you’re in power, who really wants the headaches of democracy?

Belief in Climate Change

Could it be that our previous blog entry—about Canadian regulators rejecting efforts to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news—explains the discrepancy between how citizens in the U.S. and Canada view climate change? A poll was recently released (Feb 23) comparing the two countries.

Is there solid evidence that the earth is getting warmer? 80% of Canadians think so. Americans? 58%. Now I’m not saying that the other 42% of Americans are watching too much Fox News (that wasn’t one of the polling questions) but I’m also not willing to say they’re reading the New York Times.

What causal factors determine one’s views on the existence of climate change? In the States, a slew of factors—age, gender, education—all seem to play some part in one’s belief in climate change. In Canada, the belief stays consistent across these variables; young or old, male or female, college educated or not, belief in climate change remains remarkably steady. In fact, a higher percentage of non-college educated Canadians (78%) believe in the existence of climate change compared to college educated Americans(64)%.

However, there IS one causal factor that reveals the most significant difference in one’s belief in climate change: political ideology. Conservatives in Canada and Republicans in the States are far less likely to believe in the existence of climate change compared to Liberals and Democrats.

Now we have come full-circle back to my opening question. Could lax broadcasting standards and a lower belief in climate change be related? Canada’s Prime Minister, an Alberta boy who wants to use the Tar Sands to turn Canada into an energy superpower, apparently thinks so. Who, after all, wants to lower the standards of Canadian news broadcasting? The conservative Prime Minister. On the right end of the political spectrum, it would seem that citizen ignorance is bliss; perhaps it’s even a political strategy.

To read the full report on the poll, go here: http://www.ppforum.ca/sites/default/files/Climate%202011_Report.pdf

Fox News Stopped at the Border

Fox News can't set up shop in Canada. Here's what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote about it on www.readersupportednews.org:


Fox News' Lies Keep Them Out of Canada By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

As America's middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades - against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News - fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of the Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canadian regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right-wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.

Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast ... any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right-wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage, including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the US airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish the anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non-partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right-wing network, "Sun TV News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."

Harper, often referred to as "George W. Bush's Mini Me," is known for having mounted a Bush-like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.

Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television are a stark admission that right-wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda. Since corporate profit-taking is not an attractive vessel for populism, a political party or broadcast network that makes itself the tool of corporate and financial elites must lie to make its agenda popular with the public. In the Unites States, Fox News and talk radio, the sock puppets of billionaires and corporate robber barons, have become the masters of propaganda and distortion on the public airwaves. Fox News' notoriously biased and dishonest coverage of the Wisconsin's protests is a prime example of the brand of news coverage Canada has smartly avoided.

Egypt and The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is over, the winds of change have blown through Egypt, and Canada is snowed in. Let’s reflect.

The U.S. and Canada seemed to be singing from the same song sheet during Egypt’s march to freedom. How about we call it The Orderly Transition Symphony with the Western Stability Choir? I understand that musical selection when it comes to Canada—peace, order and good government aren’t much of a call to bold action, never mind overthrow. But America?

It likes to think of itself as a paeon to democracy. Yes, the zenith of the democractic ideal that started so long ago in the minds of Greek philosphers finally came to full flourish in America. The Super Bowl told me so. The Declaration of Independence was read outloud as prequel to the big pigskin battle in Texas. And remember that riff from the Declaration?
…That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Giddyup Cowboy, if that ain’t a call for what was happening in Tahir Square, what is? The Egyptians simply want to affect their safety and happiness. And what did America do? Hedge its bets for as long as it could.

Meanwhile, the Super Bowl pre-game was convincing us we were a country like no other. Images came at us—Kennedy, King, Ali, Roosevelt, JFK Jr. saluting at his dad’s funeral, Obama, firefighters in the Twin Towers and then--during the singing of the Stars and Stripes, just after we saw George and Laura Bush standing next to Mr. Football, John Madden--we cut to soldiers at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. (Sorry, but I couldn’t help wonder where dwelt the ghost of Pat Tillman, the brave and idealistic NFL player who quit the game to enroll in the army and was killed by friendly fire in an incident the Army tried to cover up. The documentary, by the way, is called The Tillman Story.)

At a certain point, the gap between theory and reality became too wide to bridge. Let’s call the it chasm between how we talk and how we walk. We all knew the Dubya’s claim that we were invading Iraq to create a wave of democracy throughout the Middle East was merely a sales job, but Egypt was the real deal. A bottom-up overthrow of dictatorship. And America—God Bless America—played it safe.

Canada? Well, when the Super Bowl ended, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation had a show on called Make the Politician’s Work featuring Canada’s Minister of Defense, the duplicitous and studly Peter Mackay, undergoing an arduous combat boot camp. “Sir, yes sir, sir!” and more.

Now I can, at last, sleep soundly! The Minister of Defense is ready. He’s all polished boots and disciplined killer. Maybe he can go on a mission in Afghanistan and catch the faint, whispered wisdom from the ghost of Pat Tillman.

Lament After Lament

I say this with no pride but the United States is done, finished, kaput. It is broken. We have nothing to do but watch its inexorable decline. Watching may not be appropriate, for its demise will not be pretty; it may even be dangerous. A country that is highly armed, romanticizes war(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnCAjAVsM_E), is in steep economic decline, has both an obsession with its own exceptionality and a political system that no longer functions, is ripe for demagogues and tyrants to move in.

Nothing can stop this decline. There is no savior. (Obama’s election healed a national wound and that was a significant gift to the Republic. After that? Yes we can, but only if everyone wants too.) Some time ago—who knows exactly when?—politicians learned that while you speak to the people, you listen to the money. Some time ago—who knows exactly when?—the dumbing down of the citizenry went too far. Some time ago—who knows exactly when?—the role of government stopped being about serving its citizens and became about serving those who run its machinery and grease its wheels. Some time ago the press stopped trying to be a courageous and honest voice, and surrendered. Some time ago conversation and compromise packed up and went home, leaving theatre and spectacle and sound bites to claim center stage. Some time ago the Supreme Court wasn’t politicized, the ads weren’t written by pit bulls and civility had a seat at the table. Some time ago—who knows exactly when?—the United States could still turn things around.

Despite all of this, I have no deeper hope than being proven entirely wrong.

And here’s an equally cheery lament from Christopher Hedges author of Death of the Liberal Class:

The lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, which looks set to make sweeping gains in the midterm elections, is the direct result of a collapse of liberalism. It is the product of bankrupt liberal institutions, including the press, the church, universities, labor unions, the arts and the Democratic Party. The legitimate rage being expressed by disenfranchised workers toward the college-educated liberal elite, who abetted or did nothing to halt the corporate assault on the poor and the working class of the last 30 years, is not misplaced. The liberal class is guilty. The liberal class, which continues to speak in the prim and obsolete language of policies and issues, refused to act. It failed to defend traditional liberal values during the long night of corporate assault in exchange for its position of privilege and comfort in the corporate state. The virulent right-wing backlash we now experience is an expression of the liberal class’ flagrant betrayal of the citizenry.

The liberal class, which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible, functioned traditionally as a safety valve. During the Great Depression, with the collapse of capitalism, it made possible the New Deal. During the turmoil of the 1960s, it provided legitimate channels within the system to express the discontent of African-Americans and the anti-war movement. But the liberal class, in our age of neo-feudalism, is now powerless. It offers nothing but empty rhetoric. It refuses to concede that power has been wrested so efficiently from the hands of citizens by corporations that the Constitution and its guarantees of personal liberty are irrelevant. It does not act to mitigate the suffering of tens of millions of Americans who now make up a growing and desperate permanent underclass. And the disparity between the rhetoric of liberal values and the rapacious system of inverted totalitarianism the liberal class serves makes liberal elites, including Barack Obama, a legitimate source of public ridicule. The liberal class, whether in universities, the press or the Democratic Party, insists on clinging to its privileges and comforts even if this forces it to serve as an apologist for the expanding cruelty and exploitation carried out by the corporate state.

Populations will endure repression from tyrants as long as these rulers continue to effectively manage and wield power. But human history has amply demonstrated that once those in positions of power become redundant and impotent, yet retain the trappings and privileges of power, they are swiftly and brutally discarded. Tocqueville observed that the French, on the eve of their revolution, hated the aristocrats about to lose their power far more than they had ever hated them before. The increased hatred directed at the aristocratic class occurred because as the aristocracy lost real power there was no decline in their fortunes. As long as the liberal class had even limited influence, whether through the press or the legislative process, liberals were tolerated and even respected. But once the liberal class lost all influence it became a class of parasites. The liberal class, like the déclassé French aristocracy, has no real function within the power elite. And the rising right-wing populists, correctly, ask why liberals should be tolerated when their rhetoric bears no relation to reality and their presence has no influence on power.

The death of the liberal class, however, is catastrophic for our democracy. It means there is no longer any check to a corporate apparatus designed to further enrich the power elite. It means we cannot halt the plundering of the nation by Wall Street speculators and corporations. An ineffectual liberal class, in short, means there is no hope, however remote, of a correction or a reversal through the political system and electoral politics. The liberals’ disintegration ensures that the frustration and anger among the working and the middle class will find expression in a rejection of traditional liberal institutions and the civilities of a liberal democracy. The very forces that co-opted the liberal class and are responsible for the impoverishment of the state will, ironically, reap benefits from the collapse. These corporate manipulators are busy channeling rage away from the corporate and military forces hollowing out the nation from the inside and are turning that anger toward the weak remnants of liberalism. It does not help our cause that liberals indeed turned their backs on the working and middle class.

To read the rest of it: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_world_liberal_opportunists_made_20101025/P100/