I’ve had the thankless task lately of breaking some really bad news to my Conservative friends. Stephen Harper doesn’t love them anymore. This is something they find impossible to believe and when the truth of it sinks in, they go through all the stages of grief right before your eyes and still they can’t quite believe it. It’s like one of those shocking betrayals where you get the news from a third party by text message so it doesn’t quite seem real. I hate to burst their bubble and it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it.
My was made just a little easier yesterday by the spin stylings of some charter members of Harper’s Ministry of Fear, Jim Flaherty and Dean Del Mastro. Why you ask? Aren’t they good soldiers of the Conservative cause? Well, the funny thing is, even conservatives need employment insurance from time to time and they also like to back up their iPod music on CD. So you can imagine being called “picky job seekers” and “format shifting thieves” was not well received, even by them.
You have to realize that people like you and me expect to get punished by this GOVERNMENT but conservative voters still view it as an opposition party led by Steve Harper, their friend, the guy who slayed the big bad Liberals, the guy who was gonna be their pal for life, their protector and meal ticket. This is the spin they were sold and they bought it in good faith. Stephen Harper was the honest politician. He was going to give them good, honest government. The problem is, all he’s giving them now is GOVERNMENT with a capital G and extra reverb. He’s not their Conservative freedom fighter anymore, he’s the fuzz. He’s the punisher. Steve’s not buying them a beer anymore and he’s not just bringing in punitive laws for non-Conservatives, he’s writing them for everyone.
The truth is, when you elect an all-powerful, majority government and they decide to get tough on the population, everyone pays. Doesn’t matter what flavour of government it is, if you give your favourite politicians too much power, you will regret it. Governments don’t just create laws and policies that make their partisan supporters jump for joy, they also create laws and policies that will piss off their supporters eventually. Why? Well, unless you’re a big corporation, your opinions don’t matter that much once you’ve given a bunch of politicians the keys to the kingdom. I know it doesn’t make much sense. You’re the one that gave them the power, shouldn’t they care what you think? They do, sort of. At least they care come election time. That’s why spin was invented.
That’s why this GOVERNMENT has had their spokes-ministers laying the groundwork to shape your opinion. People on EI aren’t good Conservatives like you and I. No, they are lazy and shiftless Liberals and they deserve to be pushed around. Those bums need to be taught a lesson, right?
Anyone who backs up their files on CD is a sinister, bootlegging, criminal mastermind who pays for socks but steals shoes. Well, that spin was lame but you get the idea.
Instead of arguing with my Conservative friends about whether Stephen Harper is a good guy or not, I’m just letting his GOVERNMENT speak for itself. You don’t receive a “get out of jail free” card when you vote Conservative. You lose your job and you need EI, you have to follow the same rules everyone else does. You get caught “stealing” copyrighted music. Bam, you’re in the slammer with the rest of us. The party’s over and we’re all going to be paying the tab from now on.
You might argue that it’s easy to be a critic but I do have some ideas about how we can fix this in the future. Electoral reform. It’s the only way all voters, not just Conservatives, can be sure that the good politicians they think they’re electing don’t format shift into a bad majority government accountable to no one, not even the people who supported them.
