The other day, the question came up: What is wrong with politics? You have to figure there are several good books in that question so you are hardly going to answer it in a 400-word blog. If you boil it all down to basics, you have to say that people no longer want to compromise. And compromise is the essential art of politics.
In politics you have to do what you can today while saving the impossible for tomorrow.
But you cannot put off the impossible forever. In a world of diametrically opposed positions, the compromise is becoming harder to find. We have seen many examples of this in the stand-off positions taken by the politicos in the American Congress. The Democrats and Republican politicians practice brinkmanship while the country is in dire straits. They are intransigent to appease their disparate publics. The tri-partite strength of the American Dream is often shattered when the President, the politicians and the judges of the Supreme Court are at loggerheads. There are many frustrations and proposed fixes and little action.
Canadian politics are no better. At least Canadians can blame Queen Victoria and quisling politicians for the current state of their almost unrepairable constitution. Canadians use generational change as an excuse to throw out each previous generation of failed politicos. The new breed quickly tosses the worst of their predecessors’ failed laws.
The Canadian Dream is something we recreate as the need arises. We think that compromise is something we do with our farm-team provincial politicos. Our approach to compromise is to water our wine—to appease the lowest common denominator.
Canadians are high on clean air, sparkling waters and virgin forests until we need to despoil them to tear away the minerals and hydrocarbons. Making money comes first.
Compromise in Canada is what we do with our business benefactors. Just tell us when you are through raping and pillaging the environment so that we can pass a law against it.
Canada is run for the One Per Cent. They prefer to buy their positions of trust, their appointments, their honours, their recognition and/or their obscurity. They are the proud patrons of our politicians.
The public has its day when periodically, the politicos turn their attention to the desire to get re-elected. Sometimes they do that too late.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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