Negative Ads, Percy Shelley and Bloodsucking Conservatives

Ok, I am only going to make one more post about these negative ads because it is getting boring. But since I have had a few people on the internet observe that they doubt that these ads are bigoted I just need to clear this up. The easy way to know that these ads have an undercurrent of bigotry is with a small conceptual exercise. Imagine for a moment that Michael Ignatieff happened to be a person of color. In this Case it is clear that the even the Conservative Party would not have run the ads because the implications would be very clear to everyone. Or if the ReformaTories did run these ads under such condition the outcry would have been so overwhelming that they would have pulled them. As it is the ran another ad that I am sure they have pulled (at least in this area of the country) which showed various events over the past thirty-five years and said that "these were the events that shaped my Canada . . . and Ignatieff missed them all." The bigoted, dare I say racist, implications of this ad were much more clear and that is the reason, I venture to say, that I have not seen it again.

Tell every ReformaTory you can that these ads do not constitute political discourse and they bilittle us all and slowly destroy the core of our 'democracy.' Oh yea, I forgot, the destruction of democracy seems to be the actual goal of the ReformaTories. They cut off funding for court challenges, they have destroyed the freedom of Cabinet Ministers (and Caucus members) to speak, they have take almost all funding from adult literacy programs, they destroyed de facto freedom of information, they fired watchdogs who do their jobs, they have ignored court orders, they have ignored actual bills passed by the majority of the House (failing to implement the will o the people), they have created handbooks on how to shut down parliamentary committees, they have prorogued parliament to avoid a confidence vote, and though they created the office of the Parlliamentary Budget officer, they cut his powers after he did his job and have consistency refused to cooperate with him because he doesn't say what they want to hear. The destruction of democracy and the 'coronation' of their leader into absolute power is clearly their goal.

But you know, the only thing I don't understand about it is why average Conservative MPs are putting up with this. Surely they got elected to have some say in how government works and if you read Garth Turner's recent book Sheeples it is clear that they MPs have no say at all. And watching the Government self-destruct means many of them will lose their seats so why don't they just speak up?

I met murder on the way-
He had a mask like Castlereagh -
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him;

All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed them human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.


Shelley (from The Mask of Anarchy)

Now imagine Harper as Castlereagh and the seven fat blood suckers as John Baird, Jay Hill, Jason Kenney, Peter Van Loan, Jim Flahety, Gerry Ritz, and Rona Ambrose.

Shelley's political language

One of Percy Shelley’s greatest poems was the Masque of Anarchy written as an attack on the brutality of the British government of the 2nd Earl of Liverpool who was Prime Minister from 1812-1827. Liverpool surrounded himself with such distasteful men as Viscount Castlereagh and Viscount Sidmouth. Shelley’s attack on these brutal and cruel men was visceral and passionate. For those who don’t realize that even a Romantic poet can use provocative political language, here are a few verses from the Masque of Anarchy.

I met Murder on the way--

He had a mask like Castlereagh--

Very smooth he look'd yet grim;

Seven bloodhounds followed him:

All were fat; and well they might

Be in admirable plight,

For one by one, and two by two,

He tossed them humanhearts to chew,

Which from his wide cloak he drew.

Next came Fraud, and he had on,

Like Lord E--, an ermined gown;

His big tears, for he wept well,

Turned to mill-stones as they fell;

And the little children, who

Round his feet played to and fro,

Thinking every tear a gem,

Had their brains knockedout by, them.