Politics has changed. Michael Harris writes:
Politics used to be a contest of ideas between parties with different visions of the country. At election time, that produced a winner and a good loser.
Now it is a Texas death-match of ideologies. The other side is no longer just an opponent, but an enemy, a traitor, or worse. No victor is legitimate, and there are no good losers.
Our public spaces are now battlefields where anything goes: kicking, biting, eye-gouging, and, of course, industrial-scale lying.
The first casualty of barroom brawl politics is any meaningful discussion of policy. In a way, cerebral politics is dead, as the Democrats are slowly coming to realize in the United States.
The King of Sting, Donald Trump, is largely responsible for this sea-change in the national political discourse.
Trump is supported by followers whose idea of advocacy is an ever more vulgar partisanship; the “Fuck Biden” crowd.
Like it or lump it, a convicted fraudster and also a rapist—according to one judge—is now drawing comparisons from his followers with Jesus.
Canada has also become the home of barroom politics:
The prime minister has personally borne the brunt of MAGA-style politics here in Canada.
Several of his public appearances have featured verbal assaults that sounded like Trump supporters berating Biden or Nancy Pelosi.
“Fuck Trudeau” signs now routinely appear at Trudeau’s events, and the PM was accused at one of them of being a “pedophile” by a low-life jackass shouting in his face. Another dud threw gravel at him.
The Conservative Party of Canada has adroitly mimicked in this country Trump’s “everything is broken” message. It is not accidental that Pierre Poilievre is the champion of simple and draconian policies.
High interest rates? Fire the head of the Bank of Canada. How to cut spending? Defund the CBC, and put thousands of Canadian journalists out of work. Media giving you a hard time? Vilify and lecture them. Inflation getting you down? Try crypto currency.
Remember, the Orange One is the champion of firing big wigs, defunding public institutions, and attacking the press as enemies of the people. Poilievre received his message loud and clear.
Idiocy has become a social disease.
Image: CP 24
