Shorter Travers: Harperism=Bonapartism
Travers' excellent column is basically a primer on Bonapartism, as I suppose he couldn't expect his readership to get the reference. He's right, that's where we are, with Harper's bad faith manipulation of our institutions, particularly our electoral system - Harper's elections (real & threatened) based on strength of his plurality, within our system, do the same work as Louis Napoleon's plebiscites & conservative base. It took a combination of external (Franco-Prussian War) and internal (progressive coalition) circumstances to stop LN. I hope the second condition is sufficient in Canada, although Afghanistan could prove to fulfill the first.
posted by Eugene Forsey Liberal @ 6:33 PM
3 Comments:
At 7:13 PM,
Anonymous said…
The party will not go anywhere but down with the anointed one as leader.
Iggy is worse than even the hapless Dion was before him, that is a big problem that the Rosedale types brought to us and they continue to ignore the fact that they made a huge mistake.
A real leadership convention is sorely needed, short of that or perhaps preceding at the very least there should be a one vote per member referendum on Ignatieff's continued leadership.
At 11:58 PM,
Eugene Forsey Liberal said…
Anon@7.13, my views are known, but as I've said, to be fair, Iggy's done well last month. We are where we are. Defending democracy, a, upholding Cdn-Intl standards of civilisation, b, and hence protect our soldiers & ourselves, c, from increased attacks in Afghanistan due to effects of torture induced alienation and from ICC prosecution, are the priorities. Time for all democrats to stand up for democracy.
At 3:12 PM,
Anonymous said…
Iggy's done well last month?
I don't think so.
This torture play is going to go nowhere and in fact it will hurt us if an election were to occur.
We need someone solid like John Manley, but quality Liberals who have been around know how poor the prospects of electoral success are right now.
Without real party renewal there will be nothing but disappointment in the foreseeable future.
The way that Dion was treated is way beyond the pail and I find myself questioning whether I will be in this tent come the next election.
I may have to sit it out in order to keep a clear conscience.
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