Why Merge With The Liberals?

If you can become the Liberal Party? How the NDP deals with the temptation to move right, will determine whether or not it will be worth supporting them, going forward.

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Why I Am A Ronin Lefty, Reason 623

Gutless responses to challenges from the Conservatives, on the most basic tenets of what the party used to stand for. For example, in today's Globe, Douglas Bell relates a story about the Conservatives' tough-on-crime mania and how no one is calling bullshit on them:

Even the Dippers (who used to count the Quakers as allies when it came to prison reform) want in on the act. At lunch with a senior Commie some weeks ago I raised an article in The Economist which read in part:

“Fighting crime has been a priority for Mr. Harper's minority government ever since the Conservatives defeated the Liberals in 2006. A third of the 63 bills introduced in the House of Commons in the past year have dealt with some aspect of criminal justice, and more are on their way. Despite complaints that a similar, purely punitive approach has not worked in the United States, and that piecemeal change will clog up the justice system and leave taxpayers with a larger bill, the government has not deviated.”

My man mumbled something about Jane Creba and that if I were to raise that sort of mumbo jumbo in a forum concerned with soliciting votes from real people I’d get laughed out of the room.

Well, sure, I responded, but, ah, crime stats are down across the board and doesn’t supporting tough-on-crime legislation make you guys what the late Paul Tsongas used to call “pander bears?”

At which point my socialist interlocutor changed the channel on the conversation like I was a rerun of The New Beachcombers.

The folks who are running the NDP at the moment, would rather support something popular but stupid, than advocate for doing what is productive, but might cause them to be ridiculed by the braying donkeys on the government benches. Such non-stands are why the NDP used to make fun of the Liberals. The question is, who is laughing now?

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Mulcair's Crocodile Tears

Susan Delacourt, writes this about the NDP reaction to the December 6 anniversary:

New Democratic Party MP Thomas Mulcair presented a letter to the Commons from 15 women's groups in Quebec, arguing that the firearms registry was still vital to protecting women against violence.

Mulcair, talking to reporters later, agreed it would be "tragic" if the long-gun registry is dismantled after the Conservatives' private-members' bill passes through the committee stage and further votes in the Commons. It cleared an important hurdle last month with second reading, approval by a majority of MPs, including a number of New Democrats and Liberals. (emphasis mine)

Save your sympathy for someone who gives a shit. Your party had a chance to take a stand for women and you sold them out for the "rural" vote. Do you expect people not to remind you of this fact, every time you open your mouth to wail about it being "tragic", as if it was a natural disaster, like an earthquake or fire? Your caucus enabled this "tragedy". This "tragic" outcome is on Jack Layton's head, not God's.

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Dear NDP

Why bother with Ujjal Dosanjh and Mike Harcourt's message of "pragmatism" as the cardinal virtue of politics? Why go with half measures? If you really want to observe the glories of "getting with it" in action, just turn your eyes to the south and behold the splendor that is the modern Democratic party. Better still, if you insist that "getting with it" is the new watchword in Canadian socialist politics, why not just follow Ujjal and move yourselves into the Liberal caucus? There is no party in the world better than the Liberals when it comes to "getting with it".

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Pointing Out The Obvious

Robert Silver in the Globe:

What makes this fact interesting (at least to me) is that while the Liberals are at an all time low in popular support in the polls (and no - none of this should be taken as a statement that all is good in Liberal poll land), the NDP have really not been the beneficiaries at all of our swoon. In fact, 15.9 per cent would be Jack Layton's second worst result as leader. Even the polls from last week that had the NDP at 19 per cent would only be a 1 per cent gain over the 2008 election which given the current state of the Grits, is hardly reason for NDP celebration.

This tells me two things. First, most people who used to vote Liberal, are not looking for a left-wing party to vote for as an alternative. Two, those people have not been paying close attention to what has been going on, since the NDP is becoming more centrist, every day.

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The Headline Says It All

Layton Betrays The Faithful. The NDP is up in the polls right now and all they had to do is become a party like all the rest. Helping to gut gun control means I can never trust Layton, nor his party again. Layton and his followers might be taking comfort from the polls but in the back of their minds, I hope the words of Jesus keep them awake at night.

 ³⁶For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36, King James Version)

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The Magic Eight Ball Says

Is Barack Obama just another corporate whore, who is willing to sell out the American people, to the corporations that own the country? All signs point to yes. Liberals, they are always so predictable. One wonders why Jack Layton is so anxious to get into bed with the likes of Obama?

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