Once we all stop shouting...
Babble on.
Nick Packwood and I have had a productive e-mail exchange about what I felt was an unjustified blanket demonization of Conservatives like myself, and I feel it appropriate to share some of what Flea wrote with you:
...I hope that I am wrong and that the work of honourable people - including both my own parents - is not misguided in support of the CPC. I am making the case I am because some of Stephen Harper's actions scare the hell out of me and I believe the situation to be much more serious than is commonly credited. I think some of the CPC platform needs to be opposed and I do not aim to leave that argument in the hands of the socialists or the criminals currently running this country.
...
If my rhetoric goes over the top on gay marriage it is because I am scared out of my wits and I am baffled that more conservatives aren't scared too. If the socialists tried to pull this crap we would call them on it. We should be even more vigilant about our own.
If you disagree with the Conservative position on this issue, as both Nick and I do, the question becomes how best to oppose it: by working within a Conservative party that on all other counts is superior to the competition, or by attacking the party as a whole. I've chosen my course, and Nick has chosen his. Incidentally, both of us hope to God that I'm right.
Hopefully, we can both confine ourselves to more precise rhetorical weapons in the future.
Well, except when it comes to lying, cheating, rat-bastard, demon-spawned Liberals. They're all a bunch of thieving crooks. Fleets of rhetorical B-52's should be sent at them in waves... ;)
Babble off.
posted by Babbling Brooks @ 12:44 p.m.
7 comments
7 Comments:
I'd be wary of anybody who completely accepts the platform of any political party as being sacred.
Personally, I'm far to the right of the CPC on economic issues, and this is hard thing for me to reconcile.
I could jump to the Libertarian Party, but that would be a waste of time.
Nobody gets everything they want, and the CPC is the closest thing to a step in the right direction that we have going right now.
You know, when it comes to "scary" politics, I wish the Nick Packwoods would be as concerned when it's Saskatchewan farmers being thrown in jail for the crime of selling their wheat to the US without a Wheat Board permit that farmers in 70% of the country are issued for free.
Make you a deal, boys - I'll compromise on my opposition to changing the defitinition of marriage the day _after_ we celebrate the introduction of property rights in the Charter.
Yes, let's all be concerned about gay marriage. After all, we've got this Liberal government that's corrupt and stuff. It's important be wary of the Tories because two same sex people want to enter into a binding contract and the Conservatives don't want to call it marriage.
Yeah, I'm absolutely terrified...
It seems to me that the thing to be worried about with the conservatives is that they'll go the way of the Republican party in the US: enact a big tax-cut, increase spending in order to defend their left-flank, and blow the deficit out of the water.
The US just posted a surplus this quarter - I think their second in a row. We also still have a higher national debt as a ratio of gdp. In the meantime, the average American has a 25% higher standard of living that the average Canadian. They're not doing everything well, but theyr'e certainly not doing as badly as the critics would have you believe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/04/AR2005050402134.html
As is often pointed out - a 5 % unemployment rate under Clinton was the sign of a healthy economy, while under Bush, a 5% unemployement rate was a crisis.
Kate. Read the article that you provided the link for. Yes, the numbers are an $48b improvement over expectations. But there will still a $400b deficit in the US federal budget, not including the cost of the Iraq war. That means that they will add more debt in one year than Canada has accumulated since confederation.
Is there debt ration better than ours? I'm not sure. Their accumulated debt is US$7.7 trillion (http://zfacts.com/p/461.html), or c. $26k per capita.
Our accumulated debt is $621b, or c. $27k per capita.
Ours is in Canadian dollars; theirs in American. Their economy is larger than ours.
But the point is that our debt is shrinking and theirs is growing.
I'm living in the States this year. Trust me, there is not very much about the way they run their budget that we want to imitate.
Exactly right! They should slash their military budget from $1,400 to $300 per capita and rely more heavily on Canada for their defense.
Deciding on what to spend your money on is a slightly different question from arranging the budget, which is about balancing spending and taxing. This the American system does not do well. The result is clear to see. Their debt is growing at an alarming rate; ours is not.
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