The capacity for critical thought - how do we build it?

Just as we wind down the first half of 2011 in preparation for Canada Day, three disparate blog posts are jumping out at me:

• At Sixth Estate, Government of Canada Issues Statement Opposing the Alphabet
• At Politics and its Discontents, Sun News Network – Full of Sound And Fury, Signifying Nothing
• At Porcupine Blog, The Hegemony of Authoritarian Ideology and the Vancouver Hockey Riot

Harper as Nixon?

I've seen the comparison floating around out there on the intertoobz for some time now.

For those not familiar with the era in question, Rick Perlstein's seminal book Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America sets out how Republican Richard Milhous Nixon and his brain trust used divisiveness, demonization and dog whistles to capture the White House in 1968. The resulting tribalisms, resentments and cleavages in the American body politic are still resonating today.

Other parties have no right to govern, Harper says

Read about it here.

Only the party that wins the most seats gets to govern, he says. Anything else, the public will not buy. In other words, me me me me me gimme my goddamn majority and no one else gets to play with my ball.

Once again, Steve:

Mandate = confidence of Parliament.
No confidence = no mandate. 

Is that too hard for you?

Jesus H. Christ. Will no one rid us of this troublesome autocrat?

Related posts:

• Harper reveals his character, yet again
• The simple truth about coalitions shouldn't be this scary
• What's worse? The lies, or the insult to our intelligence?

Harper reveals his character, yet again

Once again, a guy who can't work and play well with others.

No plans to compromise, because they're not going to let me have my way.

And for good measure, he throws in a little misdirection and BS about a "mandate from the people." Didn't William McCormack try something like that a few years ago? Screw the law, I'm standing on faux-populist demagoguery.

Once again: the mandate to govern depends on earning the confidence of Parliament. Full stop. Party affiliations are irrelevant.

Stephen Harper: your one-stop source for petulant bullshit.

Sent from my mobile device

Eye on the ball, comrades

To quote Fern Hill:  Stop it! All of you!

Do I have to remind you what happens when Liberals, NDPers and other opposition parties slag each other? Do we really want to be tearing each other down when the focus needs to be on getting rid of the foul Harper Regime?

The simple truth about coalitions shouldn't be this scary

All over the news by now, of course: Iggy says if Harper doesn't win a majority and can't command the confidence of the House of Commons, he'd consult with the other parties and attempt to form a government himself.

An election message from conssayyes and #Harperslegacyofshame

Well. The Dammit Janet folks are on a roll today.

Via the Tweeter, a must-see video from conssayyes. If you're indifferent about this election, if you're not sure how to vote, or if you're not even that motivated to vote at all, watch this.

Best #elxn41 poster so far (shamelessly stolen from Fern Hill)

Comrade Fyrnova makes another heroic contribution to the organs of revolutionary consciousness-raising.

A marvellous and accessible demonstration of the Harper Regime's counter-revolutionary tendencies. For this, we can overlook our comrade's occasionally regrettable enthusiasm for purges and even allow the occasional show trial.

Related posts:

• Shamelessly stolen from Far and Wide
• Shit Harper Did #FTW
• The latest video from Enough Harper

Haircuts for Harper at almost $2K a pop?

What is it John Doyle calls him? "Hair in the fridge?" That must have really stung.

From yesterday's revelations about the Auditor-General's report and the tomfuckery surrounding it, this little detail:

According to Fraser, the Harper government expensed $9,460 for five "upscale haircuts" for the Prime Minister leading up to the Summit to ensure he "looked his best." 

As you were, Nick.

Update: as I suspected. BigCityLib says it's a satire. Given the way this bunch plays with the truth, no surprise that it's grown legs ...

What @pogge said

Don't know whether I've done one of these before, and if not, I don't know why not.

Anyway, I had the same WTF reaction when I saw the Radwanski suggestion that the Harpobots have provided "mostly competent government," but it's late and I don't have the energy to list all the ways in which they've provided anything but.

And then I saw: pogge's already done it for me. What a decent chap.

Go read it here.

#Elxn41: emerging theme from the week? Don't know yet

It would be easy to make it all about the expulsions, and the screenings, and the secret files, and the vetting of people on the basis of who they've got pictures of on their Facebook profiles. It's an easy story to write; the bad guys are obvious, the narrative simple, and the shades of meaning very few.

Unfortunately, as Simon points out, that's part of the white noise that helps Harper mask his ugly intentions. Not sure which polls to believe, and whether or not the arrogance and isolation and condescension are really hurting. And as Paul Wells argues, the more we focus on why Harper's so mean to reporters and so afraid of unscripted moments with people who haven't been filtered out by the multi-layered security screen, the less we can focus on other things – health care, aboriginal communities, fiscal policy, corporate-tax cuts, so-called free trade, climate change, our carbon footprint, the tar sands, energy, environment, just to name a few.

All important, yes, but based on what we've seen this week, I'd suggest that our overarching strategy still has to be making this about Harper's character, his aggressively totalitarian impulses, his hyperpartisan bitterness, what his wackjob base wants, and what would be in store for us if he ever got his majority. Ultimately, it's on those terms that we're best able to distinguish him from the opposition (after all, it's not like the Liberals are suddenly going to depart from their pattern of serving the ownership-class agenda).

And we can do that without reducing it to a simplistic two-dimensional story that's easy for the corporate media to digest and twist. That's the message at which we have to keep hammering away.

(Update: one possible suggestion ... )

What's worse? The lies, or the insult to our intelligence?

Tough call.

Stephen Harper, surprisingly, isn't addressing questions about the Gestapo-like screening techniques in use at his campaign events.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm going with Door Number Two. I expect a certain amount of disingenuous bullshit during an election, but the inherent contempt for voters and citizens in Harper's duckspeak really goes beyond the pale.

Sent from my mobile device

Our new meme for the week: Harper's Gestapo

Ok, maybe it's hyperbole, but so what? These bastards play dirty. No point in playing nice with them. Time to kick 'em in the nads.

So tonight we have several accounts of hired muscle going through the audience at a Harper party rally in London, rounding up perceived Enemies of the State and tossing them out. Probably making lists of names and faces for later, too, when the time comes to assign said enemies for re-education.

Cue the whining about the left-wing media

Not a good week for the Harper Machine, so, in keeping with the Rove playbook, watch for the complaints about media bias. I can practically hear the clutch grinding as they switch gears from swaggering bullies to whining victims.

This hot-oil massage from The Star should figure prominently.

Are stories unflattering to Harper being pulled from corporate-media websites?

The Sixth Estate, Dawg's Blog, Lorne at PAID and Dammit Janet (twice) have flagged this. If it's true, it just underlines what many of us have been saying about the Harper Regime's aggressively totalitarian character.

Really, doesn't the prospect of large media organizations engaging in self-censorship raise a few red flags? Isn't anyone just a little disturbed at the prospect of instant rewriting of history?

Let's stay on message: Harper's legacy of shame

A heartening first week, yes, but too early to say whether the wheels have come off the Harper Machine.

We can't be distracted by sideline drama over debate formats and whether or not Elizabeth May gets included. Or astroturfers trolling for trolls on Craigslist. Or Conservative senators calling reporters rude names.

Harper imploding? Let's not start the chicken dance just yet

Well, yes, the early indications are heartening.

Mr. Sinister thinks we're a couple of unscripted questions away from a meltdown.

Iggy and Harper, one on one?

 

Two white guys in ties

Tricky business, this. What's a good non-partisan guy supposed to do?

Looks like Iggy (14:44 this afternoon) and Harper (16:33) are getting set to drop the gloves. (If anyone's got a screen grab of Harpoon's initial tweet, email me.)

Whoever shouts the loudest

It doesn't have to be the truth. It just has to be repeated over and over and over, and drown out everyone and anyone else.

The Big Lie. Now where have we seen that before?

Astroturf, or an army of virtual Harpobot trolls?

This could be worse than we thought.

George Monbiot flagged this just over a month ago. Mind you, when I think of how Harpobots are spawned, I think more of things like this ...