It was an environmental activist/lawyer who was instrumental in shaping some positive environmental laws in the U.S. who got me to understand why the centrist view and work is essential in making change. She explained that you have one group on the right, another on the left, and this great void in between. The right and left have very different views and interests. They are the opposite extremes, and unless they meet each other part way, really try to grasp how as passionate and committed they are to what they want and believe, so is the other side to their own views and wants.
You'll never get everyone or even a significant number from the other side to agree to all you want, and they aren't going to win you over either. Somewhere there needs to be some compromise that both sides can accept, some agreement that will benefit the largest number of people possible. Without being open to a degree of compromise, we are left with two very different groups constantly battling, sometimes gaining ground only to lose it again. And a hell of a lot of vicious attacks from both sides.
The hated Liberal party is a centrist party. It will shift more right at times, and more left other times which is why the conservatives call them socialists (P.E. Trudeau being the biggest bastard pinko of all time) and the NDP saying they are the same as conservatives.
Lots of talk lately about putting partisanship aside. Well, take a look at our great country and what it has accomplished as far as human rights, strides in equality and quality of life, social programs, financial stability. It isn't perfect, but people aren't perfect either so it never will be. But it is still one of the best places to live in the world. And what party was in power the most over the years we shaped this great country? As much as the far left and far right hate to admit it, it was the Liberals. So really, if they are the terrible destructive force that makes people say they should just effing die, why is our country doing as well as it is?
The Liberals didn't shape this country alone, far from it. Prodded and supported by the NDP, they put through some good legislation. Prodded and pushed by the conservatives, they did some good things. And some of the good ideas even came from them.
Because they are a centrist party.
I would never want to see either the conservatives or the NDP fold and die. They are critical to shaping the range of policies across the spectrum. And they occasionally take over and shift our country back where it should be and remind Liberals that they have to earn voter confidence like anyone else. Not a perfect system, but a lot better than the two party, angry, vicious system they have in the U.S. Can anyone seriously look at the Obama government and say that represents the left? Eventually, even the left in a two party system will compromise on serious issues or risk never being re-elected. They have to deal with the realities not only within their own country, but with the world at large.
I'm all for the left uniting to find solutions and to stop the harper bunch for two reasons: we badly need reform, and the harper party is not the conservative party, not a party that anyone else can work with. It is intent on changing Canada and Canadians into its own idea of what it thinks we should be based on it's very narrow ideology. And it has situated itself to do just that, unless the left does work together, get the neo-cons out, and reform our political and electoral systems.
Lots of talk on the Net from the left about working together, but when I read that this party or that party should just die, where's the chance of any cooperation?
Niles made the following comment to Dammit Janet's post -
Much as I know there's a kneejerk reaction for people to say merge the 'left', isn't that just forcing voters to have fewer choices? Aren't voters resenting that already and just staying home? But short of that, if everyone sulks in their own corner, what changes?
Exactly, Niles. Not everyone sees conservatives as absolutely wrong in everything, and not everyone thinks the NDP is completely outside of Earth's atmosphere. There are some who understand that compromise, while not perfect, is necessary if you want to achieve anything in a country that is not an autocracy. I may not share the views of all Canadians, but I do respect their right to have a voice.
Update: Tom Flanagan disagrees with me, so I must be right.
Update: Tom Flanagan disagrees with me, so I must be right.
4 comments:
Such talk just plays into Harper's wet dream of recreating the US experience in Canada.
The merger of the Right only served to bankrupt this country politically. It forced every party to move to the right.
At this point, a merger between the NDP and more progressive LPC would just end up emulating the US Dems and GOP, battling it out to serve corporate masters. (This especially true with Harper's proposed plans to do away with public subsidies for parties seeking office.)
I'm so glad you feel that way, but of course you would because you have balance. Our parties have been shifting as well - to the right. It would be so much worse with just two.
Not everyone sees conservatives as absolutely wrong in everything, and not everyone thinks the NDP is completely outside of Earth's atmosphere. There are some who understand that compromise, while not perfect, is necessary if you want to achieve anything in a country that is not an autocracy. I may not share the views of all Canadians, but I do respect their right to have a voice.
I would call that living in the real world.
P.S, your update, the headline, was great. I almost lol'd...
I am so with you on this one, but then I was and still am a classic centrist swing voter who has no love for ideologues and ideologically driven parties whether right left up down or purple polkadot. The single largest voting block from what I can tell is not on the left nor on the right, it is in the middle of those two extremes, and if the Libs were to merge with the NDP (and essentially replicate the PCPC experience when they "merged" with the CA to form the CPC, and we have all seen how much that moderated the CA in reality all right) we would be left with two parties that would clearly force those voters to hold their noses and pick the lesser of two evils options, that is assuming they were willing to stay voting after having their moderate choices taken from them over the past decade.
This merger talk is music to Harper's ears, because he has stated repeatedly in the past that what would serve him and his kind best (and by that I don't mean the traditional Canadian conservativism, that is currently dead on the federal stage) as you have correctly noted. He WANTS to see the destruction of the Liberal party from the scene, he WANTS binary polarization, because in that environment the tools he uses to win works best, the FUD, the smears, the politics of personal destruction that he has used to such chilling effect (and Layton was more than happy to benefit from while it was aimed at the Libs, I wonder how much he will enjoy he and his being on the receiving end of it now that they are the Official Opposition, somehow I think suddenly they are going to find it less acceptable, what a shock) to destroy those that dared to question him and his fitness for office.
We used to have serious debates about issues, personal competency and overarching policies in our elections, and you can trace the demise of that with the rise of Harper as a national political leader pretty much point to point. The Libs were the only real ones trying to defeat Harper first, everyone else was after the Libs, so it is no surprise we got what we have, and yet people think that means it is time for the Libs to merge with the NDP? Give me a break folks, there is no reason the Libs can't recover from this, the NDP went from this number of seats to Official Opposition and they don't have the governing history and record that the Libs do, and it is also clear that the NDP did not make their gains because there was a fundamental shift in the electorate towards Dipper ideology but because they disliked Ignatief (or couldn't warn to him) and liked Jack Layton who was promising them all the moon and running a positive campaign (empty of substance but still positive) in a negative environment. Not to mention the possibility that the NDP may have replicated Mulroney's mistake with soft nationalists as candidates in Quebec winning and now having to actually try to placate their demands to keep them within his caucus while not alienating the rest of the base in the ROC.
No, the NDP's current position is very shaky, not built on sound foundations, and to merge now would be a disaster, for the Libs themselves, for the Canadian political system/environment, and for the Canadian electorate itself.
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