American Politics – Page 33

Political parties promote populism.

February 28, 2016 by Peter Lowry

There are people who actually fear for the future of political parties as populism grabs more of the attention in the current American primaries. It is not something you need to worry about. Political parties need the periodic peak of populism to bring them up-to-date to the reality of the times.

In Canada populism was what elected John Diefenbaker and Pierre Trudeau back in the 1900s. It was the obvious surge behind the sweep by Justin Trudeau in Canada in 2015. And then there is the antithesis of common sense in America currently of populist Republican Donald Trump and his Democrat counterpart Bernie Sanders.

Populism can be of the right or the left. It can be of the religious and economic conservatism in Canada of the Alberta-based Reform Party of Preston Manning or the agrarian left of 19^th Century American populist William Jennings Bryan.

But pundits are beginning to wonder if the Republican Party in America has bitten off far more than it can chew by turning Donald Trump lose on the archaic, corrupt and outmoded primary system in the U.S.

And what better way to ensure ultimate reform?

While nobody in politics is embarrassed by populism, there are times when it can get out of hand. Taking down a populist leader can be a fearful fight. A good example was when Dalton Camp, president of the Progressive Conservative Party of the period decided that John Diefenbaker should no longer be the parliamentary leader of the party. The fight was classic and Dalton found that the old bull had lots of fight left in him.

Populism in itself is not a political movement. The short-lived Populist Party in the United States merged into the Democratic Party in the late 1800s. It is usually an anti-establishment movement that attracts the disaffected and the angry.

Bernie Sanders has only scratched the surface of the anti-one percent anger among the American left but he is too late and too old to carry it to victory.

Donald Trump is very different as he is pulling together the angry right as an anti-establishment candidate. Trump does not give a damn what he says: all he promises his followers is that he will tell them anything he wants, when he wants. And they love it.

Trump might even become President. The only promise we can make is that the Tea Party Republicans who think he is so great today would be trying to impeach him before he was President for more than a year. He is politically stupider than George W. Bush.

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

The terror of Trump.

February 22, 2016 by Peter Lowry

If you really do not understand Donald Trump, your favourite psychiatrist might be able to help. You can also just think of Trump as another cathartic solution to the American condition. He is not that unusual a happening in politics.

Trump is not even the first billionaire to have delusions of the power of his money. Texan Ross Perot was well ahead of Trump when he took on Bill Clinton and George H. Bush in the 1992 Presidential election. It should also be noted that as foolish as some people thought Perot to be, at least his business dealings did not build on the bankruptcies and manipulations of the real estate transactions of “The Donald.” More and more people around the world are coming to the opinion that the name “Trump” on any building should be properly followed by a question mark.

But it is Trump the politician that has people really wondering. The only interesting comparison is the history of the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1920s and 30s. Trump lacks the Brown Shirt support but his “solutions” to America’s problems carry much of the verve and clarity of Mein Kampf.

Trump the politician has much the same characteristics of a living politician in the form of Toronto’s former mayor and current Councillor Rob Ford. Ford was thought to be a buffoon when he first ran for mayor of that city but the righteous anger of society’s losers was not well understood by the bulk of political apparatchiks of the time.

The many millions of America’s losers have long sought a champion. While pushing the hot buttons of anger, bigotry, frustration and rage, the Grand Old Party was tolling its own death knell. This is not just the religious, the ignorant, the ignoble and the downtrodden who want to get even. This is populism at its worst.

Even America’s Democrats are struggling with the populist supporters of Bernie Sanders without realizing, they have their own angry and frustrated voters with which to contend.

The only regret is that America seems to be learning nothing from the situation. The rest of the world can hardly isolate Asylum America until it cures itself. We need to be understanding and as helpful as we can be. God Bless America: Somebody has to help!

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Does a Pope trump a Trump?

February 19, 2016 by Peter Lowry

This must be the divine intervention that American Catholics have been praying for. It must be tough to be a Republican, though we have absolutely no sympathy for the current conundrum members of this benighted party face. It seems that they have been struggling with choosing between Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and an almost unending stream of losers. Now that Trump has taken on the Pope, members of the Grand Old Party are going to have to fish or cut bait.

Not being of any particular religion, we admit to have been paying somewhat more attention to the Holy See of late. It is the ongoing attempt of Pope Francis to drag the Roman Church kicking and screaming out of the middle ages that has caught our attention. While appreciating his efforts, this Pope has to realize that he is just one man against millions. He should note the current schism that has torn apart the Anglican Union and take heed.

Francis and Trump are interesting protagonists. The Pope came through the stifling and conservative environment of the College of Cardinals to the leadership of his church. Trump came through the open and liberal environment of America to become a billionaire and to act the buffoon.

The one thing you did not suspect was that the Pope would initiate the global sparring with Donald Trump. While no sensible citizen of the world would be comfortable with the chilling thought of Donald Trump at the helm of the world’s most powerful nation, it is not wise for an outsider to tell Americans what mistakes they might make. They seem to like finding out for themselves. They do it often enough.

In this case the Pope was commenting on people who want to build walls along borders instead of bridges. He did not consider people who wanted to build walls to be Christian. Since that is one of Trump’s signature solutions to neighbouring countries, he responded with some heat. He felt that the Pope had no right to question anyone’s faith. That is surprising considering how Trump talks about Muslims.

The Pope was talking about abortion with the media on his plane when the subject of Trump came naturally to the mind of a reporter. It is our humble opinion that the Pope showed great restraint in his response. Mr. Trump does not know what “restraint” means.

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

You betcha it’s the Trump team!

January 24, 2016 by Peter Lowry

The leaders of America’s Republican Party have already picked the team that will take on the world when it wins the November election. They are betting on billionaire Donald Trump and the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

And here you thought that the Republicans would want to temper Trump’s tirades with a more politically acceptable running mate. With former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at his side, Americans would have a greater incentive to keep Trump alive.

While Sarah is more Tea Party than mainstream GOP, you have to admit that she makes Donald Trump seem sane and practical. Her ringing endorsement of Trump in Iowa the other day was designed to sabotage Texan Ted Cruz’ presidential hopes and also open the door for the darling of the Tea Party Republicans to have another 15 minutes of fame. Where Tea Party extremists have been somewhat lukewarm to Trump because of some of his Democrat-like tendencies, it is Sarah who can bring him into the Tea Party fold.

The GOP leaders are betting that in November they can capture the lot, House and Senate and President, with the Trump-Palin ticket as the star attraction. As Palin said in her endorsement of Trump, her Tea Party “rock ‘n’ rollers and holy rollers’ in the crowd were prepared to see him kick ISIS’ ass and no more “pussy-footin” around. While Trump might have been surprised to hear it put that way, he forced a smile as the crowd roared its approval.

Many observers were convinced eight years ago that it was Sarah Palin who destroyed John McCain’s chances of winning the White House. Now the question is what could she possibly do worse for Donald Trump? He would be the calmer older brother. Maybe idiocy runs in the family but then look at the people voting for them.

And what do you think their opponents could do to them? How will they possibly handle the tag team of Trump and Palin? Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton chose Bernie Sanders as her Vice President what would happen in the debates? Hillary can handle Donald Trump with ease but Palin would drive Sanders to calling her an idiot and walking out on the debate.

And if you think American politics is nothing but a carnival sideshow now, can you imagine Donald Trump renovating the White House?

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Time for Republicans to act grown-up.

January 12, 2016 by Peter Lowry

Sitting here in Canada and looking south gives us an overview of American politics. It is only recently that there has been a lot of cringing from what we are seeing. Republican candidate Donald Trump brings an entirely new depth of despair to the race for the U.S. Presidency. He seems to have too few restraints on what he will say during his attempt to get to sleep in the American White House for the next four years.

Trump comes on as the bully in the school yard. There is little that he says about his Republican opponents that is fit to repeat. He says Mexicans are rapists. He distrusts Muslims. He thinks the Chinese leaders are smarter than the American leadership. And considering that his current hero is Kim Jong Un the North Korean dictator, there are serious questions being asked about the man’s state of mind.

While there is no question about Trump’s ability to make money, he does not seem in the mood to share with anyone. And no, he does not have enough to pay off the national debt of America.

Trump has absolutely no intention of making America Great Again. His only objective is to make Donald Trump great. He seems to want to be the modern day Alexander the Great and rule the world. You should always bear in mind that people who want to rule the world tend to leave a serious trail of dead bodies and impoverished nations behind them.

The real problem with Trump is not the guy’s ego as much as those who support him. Why would Republicans want to support the school yard bully? How could there possibly be sufficient Americans gullible enough to support him? It is time the grown-ups took charge of the GOP. They might give us some hope when we start to see the real results of the delegate selection for the Republican Convention. The mesmerized media are not keeping us well enough informed.

The funniest part of the entire Trump fiasco is the Rodney Dangerfield act that he pulls that he cannot get any respect. His entire campaign is built on the man’s extreme ego. He is in the race because he can afford to be in the race. He buys all the respect he wants.

But the saddest part of the Trump campaign is what it generates. When he talks about the respect that he could have as President, it is not respect. It is fear.

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Life in a world without heroes.

December 5, 2015 by Peter Lowry

There are no longer heroes in North America. Small children used to look up to police in their uniforms and want to emulate them. Now they fear them. And it is the fault of the police themselves. The police have placed themselves beyond our reach. They have made a sham of the controls society should have over them. They protect each other and they defy the rest of society.

And they are unnecessarily killing people.

The killing goes on both in the north and south of the Unites States and in Canada too. The police are out of control. Just have a white police officer kill a black person in America and you can have race riots in that jurisdiction for the next year. The only persons who seem to survive the melee are the police officers who did the killing.

In Canada, we have police abusing their position in society to target the racially sensitive with ‘stop and question’ tactics that can inflame racial tensions. And when told to stop the practice, the police ignore the order.

But the answer by law makers in America is to provide military equipment to local police forces. American police today are dressed and equipped more like storm troops than your friendly neighbourhood cop.

Even in Canada, we had the experience of police gathering from across the country to practice the art of “Kettling.” When they did it at the G-20 in Toronto in 2010, the police destroyed a hundred years of good community relations. This was not policing but the unnecessary strong-arming of innocent civilians. And when it came to blaming someone for the tactic, they picked a mid-level supervisor who must have pissed off his fellow white-shirts. Mind you he was finally slapped on the wrist and lost a few days pay.

The guy really responsible for that example of bad policing might have had to finally retire from the force but he found a new sinecure. He is now the Member of Parliament for Scarborough-Southwest.

But nobody is doing anything about the problems behind this loss of innocence in policing. In Canada, we have failed to ensure that there is proper civilian review of police actions. We have police service boards who think they are some form of super police. They are allowing themselves to be co-opted by the people they are supposed to supervise. They have to stop working for the police and realize they are responsible to their fellow civilians.

It is one hell of a note when people are not protected from their own damn police.

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Is America destroying the dream?

November 23, 2015 by Peter Lowry

A reader asked recently why we were ignoring the current American political scene. It is not that we are not following what is going on. We just feel sad about it. It is a travesty caught up in the guise of democracy.

In our book My American Mother (written in 1992) the principle character gives a speech in 1920s Chicago where she explains that the concept of America is an ideal—a work in process. That ideal seemed to reach its zenith during the Franklin Roosevelt presidency. It appears to have been rolling back downhill ever since.

Maybe America has hit bottom with Republican candidate Donald Trump. Trump might not be the first American with more money than brains but he is the first to make Ross Perot look like a Democrat. And here we thought that President Ronald Reagan was the final triumph of Hollywood over intelligence.

What really chills us is the wilful absence of thinking by Americans in their closed-minded adherence to one political philosophy over another. Can that many Americans be that ignorant? What really bugs us is that we have one brother in Massachusetts who is a Democrat and another brother in Ohio who is a Republican. These are not stupid people. Both have serious university degrees. The Democrat is disappointed with Obama and the Republican reviles him. Neither has conceded the man the opportunity to lead.

Listening to the Democratic candidates for president next year, you have to wonder at the shallowness of the leadership gene pool in America. And the Republican race is more like a colony of cats on their way to somewhere but they have forgotten the objective.

Seeing the stupid wall in the south of that country makes you wonder if they are dumb enough to build one on the north. And only Florida would complain about the loss of all those Canadian snowbirds.

But what really turns our stomach is that more than half American state governors have said they do not want any Syrian refugees. Yes, they are mainly Republican. And no, governors have no say in the matter. Their stand is not only bigoted and ignorant but this commentator would like to know where the hell those governors’ ancestors came from?

Those ignorant governors need to read something Emma Lazarus wrote in 1883. It was the following:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

What do Trump, Ford, Harper have in common?

August 12, 2015 by Peter Lowry

If you think the front runner for the Republican Party nomination for American President is a joke, you did not understand Toronto’s former Mayor Rob Ford either. And Stephen Harper has his own place in Hell next to both of them. All three show signs of being misanthropes—which means they really do not like people. These guys are not there for the people they say they care for. They are users, not caregivers.

These are people who care so little for others that it is only their ego that feeds them. Trump and Harper appear to share a hair fetish. Trump’s fluffed-up mane is a joke and those in the know would never dare laugh at Harper’s lacquered hairpiece. You wonder just how many hours a day it takes them to be coifed to their satisfaction. Harper’s staff hairdresser is no secret while Trump can afford as many as he wishes.

And all three are political prim donnas. They are not democratic. It is their way or the highway. And Trump and Ford are boors. They insult women as though they are from a different form of civilization. Harper is the better actor but he is even stiff around his wife. It is obvious that none of the three are really comfortable around forceful women. Not one of them has strong women on their teams.

For Ford, cancer was a minor bump on the road. It set him back but he kept the Ford name in the race for mayor at the time and another Ford in the running for his council seat. When he made it back in time to run for council, he bounced the substitute Ford to just a school trustee. Ford has to wait four years to flog his mayoralty hopes again.

Trump believes his own propaganda. He has the billions needed to fund his campaign for the White House and he will run as either a Republican or as an independent. If he does take the independent route, he is likely to be vilified by Republicans for taking votes from the Republican candidate to the advantage of the Democrats.

Harper probably believes he is better off than Ford or Trump. He is coming from a position of strength. He is an incumbent but there is baggage to that too. He is dragging the country into the second recession on his watch. Most “progressives” on his team have jumped ship. Their replacements are weak and uninspiring. He has been at loggerheads with the Supreme Court because of his disregard for Canadians’ rights and freedoms. He has trashed the Senate and scoffs at the Commons. He has annoyed our friends the Americans and made enemies for Canada in the United Nations.

And yet there are people who will vote for men like Donald Trump, Rob Ford and Stephen Harper. Be gentle with them for they are the angry, the disconsolate, the losers.

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Trump trumps rational (?) Republicans.

July 30, 2015 by Peter Lowry

Politics in America is sometimes like a badly edited Hollywood movie. It is not always rational. The recent introduction of Donald Trump as a candidate for the Presidential nomination of the Republican Party is reminiscent of Ross Perot’s wild attempts at the American presidency in the late 1990s. After all, the job is wide open to all born in America billionaires.

And is it not the American dream that any child can grow up and become president? It probably applies more to the Republican Party. In a field of misfits, what rules are there that prevent one more Looney Tunes from running?

The long gone Warner Brothers series with Bugs Bunny, Sylvester and Tweety, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and others could hardly hold a candle to today’s frenetically animated extremists of the Republican Party’s right-wing Tea Party. While Canadians peer over their not always friendly, fenced(?) border at the shenanigans to the south, they seem more satisfied with their dull as dishwater politics.

It is not that our Canadian Conservatives do not share the zeal of their American counterparts. Like the Republicans, they are top heavy with self-satisfied one-percenters who hate Liberals and liberalism and the forced equality of citizens that they represent. The Canadian moneybags are more than happy to lavish money on a bunch of dumbed-down right-wing Reform Party Conservatives. They assure them it is alright to lie, cheat and steal to achieve their objectives. And they do.

Meanwhile the gullible Canadian Liberal Party pays homage to President Obama and the American donkeys who call themselves Democrats. The only decent Democrat elected President since Franklin Roosevelt was killed before he could get much done. Not being a conspiracy theorist, we have always considered the timing of the Dallas event to be purely co-incidental.

It was like last fall when we fully suspected that Prime Minister Harper really wanted a more blood-thirsty jihadist threat than just a couple home-grown loonies so sadly killing un-armed soldiers. While Canadians are peace-loving people, they proved to be less than keen for the Conservative’s badly conceived, marketed and forced acceptance of the anti-terrorism bill.

While Canadians are so enthralled with the movie and television entertainment conceived in the United States, they are still not sure that politics is entertainment. Maybe the machinations of Donald Trump are helping to prove otherwise.

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

One of Justin Trudeau’s better moves.

June 24, 2015 by Peter Lowry

It makes sense to make nice with the United States. It is surprising for many Canadians when that becomes necessary. Not since Prime Minister John Diefenbaker pissed off President John Kennedy have relations with the Americans been more in the dumpster. Not only has Prime Minister Stephen Harper been a nag about the Keystone XL pipeline but his open admiration for President Obama’s Republican opponents in Congress has hardly gone unnoticed.

The phony bonhomie played out between Harper and Obama at G-8/G-7 meetings has been shallow and forced for some time. Sure there have been other tiffs between the two countries’ leaders (Lester Pearson versus Lyndon Johnson and Pierre Trudeau versus Dick Nixon are good examples) but these tended to be quickly patched over and cordial relations continued. Fights with a neighbour are rarely productive.

Justin Trudeau noted all of this with more restraint than you would have expected. While he called Harper’s a belligerent brand of partisan politics, he used it as an example of the need for real change. He told his audience that Harper has been hectoring the Americans throughout the past decade. He explained that “Canada’s special relationship with the United States is not automatic. Like any strong relationship,” he said, “you have to put a lot of work into it.”

But Trudeau also suggested that better relations with Mexico can be a back door to relations with the U.S.A. He noted what he referred to as Harper’s “churlish” approach to Mexico. Trudeau promised to lift the visa restrictions on Mexican visitors to Canada and to work more cooperatively with Mexico. He sees Mexico as a better trade opportunity than Mr. Harper obviously has. It also makes good sense to build relations with the other smaller member of the North American Free Trade Agreement. There are times when Canada could use an ally in dealing with the United States about some aspects of the three countries’ free trade deal.

It was also good to notice that the Liberal leader had no comment on any merits of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Obama administration is well aware that the true purpose of that pipeline is to access ocean shipping capabilities on the Texas Gulf coast to send Alberta bitumen to countries around the world that do not care about the environmental damage of converting tar sands material into synthetic oil. Maybe it’s been explained to the Justin Trudeau that no matter where in the world it’s processed, it causes global warming and Canada shares the blame.

-30-

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]