Why Do the Conservatives Hate Democracy?
Via, Sinister Thoughts, it seems like the Conservative party is blocking any progress on electoral reform in the Federal government. I guess they must still be hoping that they can get 35-40% of the votes in a future election and form a majority government. As Greg says,
Update: From the comments at Greg's post I see that perhaps the Conservatives are just blocking all government business regardless of what it is. My title was meant to be humorous (see my explanation in the comments) but if they keep this up, I'll have to start wondering if the Conservatives, perhaps don't hate, but have a certain contempt for our democracy. (Certainly the Liberals have shown their share of contempt for our democracy as well recently, but two wrongs don't make a right in my book).
"The question is, why are the Conservatives, who see threats to democracy everywhere, blocking attempts to improve our democracy?"
Update: From the comments at Greg's post I see that perhaps the Conservatives are just blocking all government business regardless of what it is. My title was meant to be humorous (see my explanation in the comments) but if they keep this up, I'll have to start wondering if the Conservatives, perhaps don't hate, but have a certain contempt for our democracy. (Certainly the Liberals have shown their share of contempt for our democracy as well recently, but two wrongs don't make a right in my book).
Labels: conservative party, electoral reform
posted by Declan at
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
7 Comments:
If I wrote a post title like that you, Balbulican, James Bow, and many others would roast me alive. The CPC does not hate democracy - far from it.
Why are they stalling this committee? I'm not sure.... it's on odd move. I can understand them holding up the SSM legislation, and even parts of the budget - but democratic reform seems like an odd thing for the CPC to oppose. Reform might hurt the CPC a bit, but it would cripple the Liberals.
By
Andrew, at 12:23 PM
The title was just me trying to be funny, sort of imitating U.S. bloggers when they ask, "why does so and so hate America" any time anyone says something negative about the U.S. government, in mockery of those who claim that anyone who says anything negative about the U.S. government hates the U.S.
In this case, I'm referring to how (some) Conservatives have been tending lately towards going overboard on the hyperbole about how the Liberals are destroying democracy and the country and so on. I thought about putting an explanation in the post or just changing the title, but decided to leave it and let people make of it whatever they chose.
For the record, I don't think the Conservative hate democracy.
Anyway, I can't claim to understand the motives of the CPC in this instance but I suspect that in general they oppose reform which might lead to proportional represenation since that would greatly reduce their chances of ever taking total control over the legislative agenda for 4-5 years.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt, maybe some of them are genuinely conservative and don't like to see changes made (although this explanation is inconsistent with the rest of their approach to our democratic processes (Senate / free votes, etc. etc.).
By
Declan, at 1:44 PM
DOH! My sarcasm detector must have been on the fritz. Sorry.
By
Andrew, at 3:40 PM
no worries - I knew it was overly open to misinterpretation when I wrote it, but did it anyway, so it was probably my fault.
By
Declan, at 4:03 PM
Apparently they found the part of the brain that registers sarcasm:
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/05/23/hscout525874.html
Yeah, right.
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James Bow, at 7:01 AM
"But some brain-damaged people can't comprehend sarcasm"
"People with prefrontal brain damage suffer from difficulties in understanding other people's mental states, and they lack empathy," said study co-author Simone Shamay-Tsoory, a researcher at the University of Haifa. "Therefore, they can't understand what the speaker really is talking about, and get only the literal meaning."
"The findings, Shamay-Tsoory said, could help rehabilitation centers do a better job of helping brain-damaged patients adjust to the world and understand other people."
Sounds like they are talking about Bush, Cheney and their cronies!
By
Simon, at 9:01 AM
Don't be absurd Simon, you sold like some 'wild-eyed leftist' - like Amnesty International or something.
By
Declan, at 10:20 AM
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