Violent Attacks Against Elected Leaders (Real or In Jest) HURT Democracy!
I am no fan of Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Yet, the disgusting portrayal of him on the Liberal website, [image] being assassinated is beyond any civil words! The fact that the website of Canada's Official Opposition hosted the photoshopped image of Harper superimposed on the body of Lee Harvey Oswald at the moment of his killing, is outrageous beyond belief! It is an attack on Canada's democracy as well.
I am encouraged to read words condemning this idiocy by some Liberal bloggers and it is right for them to do so.
Any nation, that spirals into violence against its political leaders -actual or threatened - clearly should be very concerned for its democracy. No Canadian, of any political stripe should tolerate these two unforgivable incidents. We are better than this.
In both cases, I believe it's because of a lack of true and inspiring leadership of the respective nation.
Regardless, no matter how much one might not like a leader, there is no room for wishing or portraying violence or harm or injury to such a person.
Harper's undermining democracy here and the people are reacting in a fashion that shows they're going backwards in time too--to the stone age.
Posted by Anonymous | 2:39 pm, December 15, 2009
Michael Ignatief and the Liberals have finally jumped the shark with this latest smear campaign contest. The best Liberal loser wins. Sweet.
Posted by Mark-Alan Whittle | 3:12 pm, December 15, 2009
In my opinion, no images should be allowed until "vetted" by someone who should be taking care that our collective democratic interests are being served. I doubt that we could control private web hosted images by wingnuts of either persuasion. Somehow this goes against everything that I hold to be Canadian,
Posted by rgl | 3:20 pm, December 15, 2009
From the Liberal Party of Canada website
"We’ll post every entry we receive in the coming days (as long as it’s not inappropriate)..."
If it was posted it already went through the 'filter' and was approved.
Posted by Ardvark | 4:17 pm, December 15, 2009
Leftdog,
Fully agree with the sentiment you expressed here. Any attempt at humour that implicitly condones violence should not be tolerated. It has no place in the debate. That said, if I was in charge of Lib.ca, I would be punching some smarmy minion in the head about now!
Posted by Scott MacNeil | 4:51 pm, December 15, 2009
Absolutely! We have parliamentary democracy for the explict reason that without it, humans degenerate down to VIOLENCE in order to solve their political and ideological contests. There simply has to be ZERO TOLERANCE for violence as a political tool .. whether real or insinuated! This was fucking ridiculous (and that is the first time I have ever used that word on my blog)!
Posted by leftdog | 4:57 pm, December 15, 2009
Wot, the first time you've used the word ridiculous?
Seriously this is the nadir, the absolute zero point so far for the Libs. I don't see how they could sink any lower or become any more irrelevant.
The fact that they have screwed up so so beautifully put a smile on my face though. Anything that reduces them even further in the public eye is just fine with me.
Keep up the class act Mr. Layton you're head and shoulders better than your political opponents.
Posted by Elliott Taylor | 7:20 pm, December 15, 2009
The headline - An attack on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday was PREMEDITATED, Italy's interior minister, Roberto Maroni, has said. - well no duh moron.
And now Mr.Tartaglia has a long history of mental illness, the campaign has started. See how Berlusconi looked so stunned, but mostly terrified. Ten bucks says the bully/sissy will play the give-me-sympathy card regardless of Mr. Tartaglia's mental illness history. That's just the kind pf obnoxious, gob mouth Berlusconi is.
The Secret Service is going over all of their protocols because of the uninvited guests at the WH dinner, Berlusconi's Model on the face (no irony intended), the message is plain, people can get to them, even the non-mentally ill. Which should give everyone pause.
When there are no instruments or tools the people can employ when they see their democracies, values and rule of law ground underfoot by (elected) officials, no one is so sophisticated that they are above doing harm. And voting doesn't count as an instrument anymore, considering we are being ruled, not governed by a minority gov.
IF, and it doesn't look like it so far, the Cons pulled the prorogue trick again, what instrument do we have other than to vigorously protest/march/whatever. And if that is ignored, then what?
When a gov creates policies that are too extreme and no wiggle-room area, hyper-partisanship of the political class and the public ensues and then the public begins to think in terms of extremes as well, with no grey area (from the Con playbook) Common sense leaves, even the above-that-sort-of-thing peeps will choose a side. So either we start talking Solutions or we are headed for some bad, maybe violent times. I fear it will be too late by summer and the PTB meetings in Ontario (G-20 etc), timed with less jobs, less financial stability, no real recovery, is going to push many people over the edge.
Solution 1 - Not a Coalition but a merge.
Posted by Anonymous | 7:43 pm, December 15, 2009