Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Navel Gazing

I am having trouble getting past the election.

I can understand why the 1% vote for the Right, in most cases it is in their best interest. But that should give the Liiberals 1% of the vote. The rest of their voters can be divided into a couple of categories, those who simply do not care enough to make an informed decision and those who somehow think that supporting the business class and the rich will benefit them. I guess you could say they subscribe to Ronald Regan’s “Trickle Down” theory even after it has been soundly discredited in the USA. Some others are simply locked into the ideology with the drilled in mindset that “Right is good and Left is bad”. Others, some of them normally intelligent friends, do not seem to fall into any category.

I supported Adrian Dix in his decision to not engage in the US style mud slinging that the Liberals employed but looking back, I wonder if taking the high road was the best decision. People vote because they are mad and perhaps we did not give our supporters enough to be mad at. Polls that showed the NDP with a seemingly insurmountable lead did not help either. I know many of our supporters did not think the Party needed their vote, they were going to win regardless.

What is clear, the NDP blew a lead, how big a lead is open for discussion. Norma blames the loss on 1) the inaccurate polls and 2) the strategists and organizers the party imported from Ontario to run the campaign. She has always said "Easterners" do not understand BC voters. She has managed dozens of BC elections and has won the vast majority of them, more than her fair share. Perhaps she should come out of retirement.

We need to do something. We can start by finding a way to convince young people to get involved, they made up a huge share of the 49% who did not bother to vote.

8 comments:

  1. Ain't democracy wonderful. Although I don't agree politically, I do agree with Norma that the polls probably got folks to sit on their duffs when they should have been out voting. I thought the NDP was a shoo in myself and had already thrown my arms in the air in defeat. Would I have voted, you bet, but I believe if you don't vote you can't complain. And I do like to complain.

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  2. Maybe there are those who truly believe "That Government is Best that Governs Least".

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    1. That notion seems to be more prevalent in the USA. Here, I do not mind paying taxes as long as my Government gives me what I need. We want a government "big" enough to provide all the infrastructure and benefits we need and expect including affordable (or free) education and health care.

      One of my readers in the US is retiring and has to decide what to do for health care. He is in a State, Nebraska, that has not signed on to Obamacare and he and his wife will be paying $1100 per month for health care alone. That is probably close to what Norma and I pay for all our "taxes" combined, income, property, sales, everything. For this we get benefits including health care.

      "Government that Governs Least" does not give us these benefits and I want no part of it. I, and many Canadians, prefer the Socialized system that we have.

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    2. "Free" education? So you expect people to build the schools for "free"? And then you expect to heat and cool them for "free"? And then of course the teachers must give their time for "free"?

      Substitute medical for education and Doctor for teacher and it's the same with health care.

      Nothing is "free" that's worth having.

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    3. I expect society to recognize the value of having an education system that is available to all kids, not just those rich enough to afford the ridiculously high tuition. I also expect hospitals and doctors to provide the same quality and care to all patients, regardless of the limit on their credit cards.

      Both these issues require the government to use some of our tax money to pay for these things. No, they are not "free", but the cost is shared by all of us as we all benefit from the results.

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  3. The thing you seem to miss about the US is the constitution doesn't say the government should provide all those things you want. The government was set up to provide very little and let the private sector do what they do best.

    But the left is never happy letting that happen, they want a nanny state/country.

    Glad you lost this one Croft. Now you know how we feel about Oblama.

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