EmperorMagus, on 11 October 2016 - 02:54 AM, said:
The tories in Canada tried to hire a British campaign manager to implement the same sort of tactics in the 2015 election. Thankfully, the guy's use of identity politics horribly backfired and gave a majority government to the liberals.
It was such nice day when that happened, the day Harper resigned.
Yeah. The former immigration minister just made a statement the last few days saying that the whole thing cost them the last election. They proposed a "barbaric cultural practices" tip line, supposedly for people to report if they noticed any child marriages and honour killings going on. Luckily, people recognized it for the dog-whistle that it was, noting that these things were ALREADY illegal in the first place, so it was really just a way to focus suspicion on Brown people. Even the RCMP felt the need to come out and say, and this is as close as I can remember to the exact quote, "If there's an honour killing going on next door, don't call that line. Please call 911 and let the local police handle it."
Identity politics is ugly stuff. There was a spike in hate crimes during that campaign, mostly against women. Because the kind of people who go in for this stuff are usually cowards at heart. I remember one particularly horrific one where the woman was attacked for wearing a hijab and all she was doing was walking to pick up her kid from school. It was just a few blocks from the school. Oh! And some Black girl in Toronto was cornered and harassed by some crazy dude at a metro station because he thought she was wearing a hijab. And the guy was an idiot. She had a scarf wrapped around her head because it was Toronto and it's freezing cold there in October. But she had dark skin and Stephen Harper said veils were un-Canadian, so it was open season to him. I don't want this kind of crap going on in my country, much less with my elected leaders, who should know better, egging it on. The Conservatives deserved the ass-kicking they got. My faith in my country was restored that day. As far as I'm concerned, they didn't lose badly enough though. We needed the send the message that if you try that kind of thing with us, you will lose all your seats and not get to play. It's the only thing they will understand.
And despite all that, the co-originator of that tip line is in the running for Conservative party leader and she is STILL at it. I hope she gets trounced.
The relevance to USA politics, they have a chance to reject this and seem unable to find their feet or something. Come on! We have our differences and we think you are a little bit crazy, but you're better than this! The sooner you shut this down, the sooner you can work on stuff that improves your lives. A real healthcare system would be a good start. Most developed nations have one and I think you deserve one too. I took a peek at Hillary Clinton's platform just now out of curiosity. Pretty much that. It looks pretty reasonable. I would expect some details tweaked and there may be differences of opinion here or there, but overall, I would characterize it as solid, which in government, is mostly what I look for. It should keep you busy for the next 4 years and then you can go from there.
The irony of "Make America Great Again" is that if you think about the times when America, or any other nation, for that matter, is at its greatest, it's the times when they look forward to the future and outward to the world. The guy riding under that banner will do nothing of the sort, as should be clear to anyone who hasn't been sleeping through this thing. Which is why I am all
when I read your news. It makes no sense.
This post has been edited by Una: 11 October 2016 - 07:50 AM