The Liberal Decimation

Article about the Liberals in Dissent magazine.

I don't know what's so surprising about the fall of the Liberals. They make it sound as if some noble party just passed on.

It's simple, as a former Liberal voter (and not gone for good if I see improvement): The liberals became cocky, stale, arrogant sons of bitches.

A+!

As the article points out, it doesn't help that the Liberals have little grassroots support or exposure.

Lotsa work to be done.

It's a good article but I don't get this paragraph:

"Most frustrating is the Left’s inability to pull a Harper and unite. The Liberals, the NDP, and the Green Party, if combined, would have won a majority of the popular vote in May and would have won a majority of seats in the preceding elections. The inability of the Greens to join up with the NDP or Liberals is particularly galling, given that the former hold a single seat and nearly halved their vote total. Polls are showing that Canadians would like the three parties to join hands, but the NDP and Liberals have very different histories and, truth be told, philosophies. The NDP is a classic European democratic socialist party, while the Liberals are much more business- and American-friendly. The NDP advocated Canada leaving Afghanistan years ago, while the Liberals remain committed to keeping troops there to train the Afghan army; the NDP wanted to raise corporate tax rates, in contrast to the status quo–favoring Libs; and only the NDP called for an aggressive cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions."

If it's not possible, why bother arguing "they would have won the popular vote?" Until the scenario is more plausible (and it's all talk right now predicated more on fighting the conservatives than actually coming up with a new game plan) it's just pillow talk. If Italy would have been united during the Renaissance would South America be predominantly Italian speaking? Interesting question, but a 'what if' one that could leave us spinning in circles. The Liberals, who did claim moderate voters (just like the Progressive Conservatives did - they didn't hold a monopoly on that) they would likely further alienate that base if they joined up with the other two.

And this one:

"Still, a Conservative is a conservative. Harper has cut sales and corporate taxes, avoided confronting climate change, and increased military spending. If Canada’s Left is to regain control over the country’s future, another 145 years will be too long to wait."

Still a socialist is a socialist, Layton would increase sales and corporate taxes, enrage Alberta even more than Trudeau could ever do  by confronting climate change with still more taxes,  and decrease military spending thus making us even more dependent on American military protection "behind the scenes" thus weakening our "independence" as the pillaging Danes, Norwegians, Russians, Americans and Kenyans would claim more Arctic land.

If anything, this country could use a reality check.

By the way, the author might be interested to know the Liberals balanced the budget how exactly? By cutting SOCIAL PROGRAMS.

There. Simple.