Friday, October 03, 2008

Stevie and the Base

Steven Chase in the Globe today has a big article all about how Harper fully realizes that his base is only about 30% and his plan to shift the Canadian public rightward will have to be incremental.

Of course that doesn't explain how Harper thought he could get away with slashing arts funding and talking about throwing 14 year old children in prison with violent adult prisoners making them, as Duceppe so memorably put it, fresh meat for the perversions of older convicts. These are positions that may have excited the primitive emotions of the rednecks (I live in Alberta, I know whereof I speak.) but in Quebec particularly, are likely to end any hope Harper may have had of a majority this election.

Last year a British Tory had some advice for American Republicans already facing support that was bottoming out:
You have to be very honest with yourself about what voters think. It may not be the same as what you think. Confusing these two things is very easy. Untangling them is vital.
Despite their claims to the contrary, Harper and the Conservatives really do overestimate the support their reactionary program has. That overestimation has cost them 10 to 20 potential seats minimum in Quebec this election and any lingering hope of a majority, and with the American voters seemingly about to put a capstone on the Reagan revolution the trend here in Canada is also likely to be leftward rather than towards Harper's base.

2 comments:

Niles said...

Pardon my veering slightly off-topic. When you speak of Harper's 'tough on crime' stance exposing young offenders to the 'perversions' of older prison inmates, I have to disagree with the choice of wordage.

If it's willing inmate relations, it's sex. If it's coerced, either between inmates or between staff and inmates, it's rape and slavery used as a commodity to offset further torture.

Please treat the brutally *learned* social dominance inside a prison as the base, and frankly state-tolerated, criminal acts they are. 'Perversions' is a far more subjective term.

Cliff said...

Rape is a perversion and rape is what Duceppe was referring to. The word wasn't mine either. By no means do I view consensual relations between adults, no matter the gender, as perversion in any way.

Please see my detailed post on Duceppe's comments and the evidence backing them up.

Popular Posts