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I am a Liberal and a liberal. I am also fairly right wing, and my views tend to be not readily categorized -- on any consistent basis, anyway. Moreover, I -- like many other Canadians -- have no broad description of the party agendas and plans to review and try to make sense of some complicated, or simply complex, plans. So, at the risk of having my own (party's) glass house crumble around me as I begin pitching granite, I have to make the following observation.
Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservatives, has been making a lot of noise on two fronts. To begin, he is pandering in the typical Conservative way: tax cuts. Leave money in people's pockets. Which is, in no uncertain terms and at first blush, the political high ground. Who would rationally argue for or elect to have more taxes? After all, the government is not only incompetent, it's wasteful with our money. Remember it is OUR money until it's taxed away. Everybody knows that we, the people, know best what to do with our money.
Let's not quibble on the need for and broad appreciation of infrastructure (defence, roads, communications, international trade and relations, etc.) and government services (health care minimums, employment insurance, welfare, development subsidies, education, etc., etc.). Let's stop short of everyone's -- even The Fraser Institute's Michael Walker, I'm sure, in his less indulgent moments -- ultimate admission that in this day and age (or any day and age, actually), government is essential. It is not feasible to have any sort of nation without governance. So everyone grudgingly admits that taxation is required. What we disagree over is the level and how it should be administered. [Reminds me of a joke: Guy walks up to a lovely young lady in a bar and asks, "Would you sleep with me for $1-million?" She looks him up and down, and despite his rumpled appearance and odor, says, "A million dollars? Absolutely." He immediately responds with, "Well how about $25?" She, infuriated, retorts, "What do you think I am, a whore?" "We've established that," says the man, "We're haggling price now."]
But, reducing taxes is only one half of Harper's equation. He's also committing to another political point-getter (among so many others): he'll spend more on defense. If you're getting an 80s flashback to The Gipper, it makes perfect sense. Next, I'm sure we'll hear about trickle-down economics as the answer to it all. But, I get ahead of myself. In any event, the sum is that Harper's going to spend more on the important stuff like defense because it's essential to our national sovereignty. [He has gone to great pains to point out that he would not have supported Canadian military contribution to the American Iraq war . . . because we were incapable of fielding a team.] So this is another hard to beat position. Everybody knows that our defensive capabilities are abyssmal; that our military men and women are under-equipped for today's conflicts; that we've got three submarines that can't sub-marine and helicopters that do their best work on the ground.
Here's the point. As the title says, SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE. At least the name-calling of the Liberals ("Tax and spend Liberals") makes logical sense. "Don't tax and still spend" is simply idiotic or magic. But what I know about magic by religiously watching and reading Penn & Teller is that it's all an illusion: the product of decidedly ugly mechanics. That's what we're working against.
The arguments will continue about whether the Reagan years were good or bad. What we really know is that they changed the American nation -- its psyche and tilt -- profoundly. It also left behind a massively larger financial hole in the form of a debt that may very well be unrepayable ever. In short, it did not achieve the bedrock philosophical objective of self-sustenance and living within your means while saving/investing and creating weath that is espoused by the most ardent of Republican conservatives. It was, in that respect at least, a failure IMHO.
Suffice it to say that recycling this magic for a new audience appears to be the campaign strategy of the Harper machine. Let's all think about this twice and ask for just a little integrity. What's going to give Stephen?
Posted by Grayson at December 14, 2005 07:54 AM