Are Politicians out of Touch?
Only a little. And they are getting all the wrong sort of help from the pollsters and the media. Well, maybe not the media so much, because some politicians have recently gone so far into la-la-land that it has become news. Here is a touch of reality some of them could use.
First Problem (The One that Won’t Go Away): Elbowgate.
Talk about a conflict in which everyone loses. First the Prime Minister. The honeymoon is over, at least for this commentator. Justin Trudeau has demonstrated a lamentable tendency to act like his father did, without the chutzpah to carry it off. His actions in Parliament last week showed how he feels about his fellow parliamentarians: a bunch of school kids who need to be rousted back into line. (That’s how they were acting, of course…) But even a teacher isn’t allowed to take a kid by the arm and shove him into place. Trudeau definitely stepped out of line himself, and I think for bad reasons. More on that later.
But then there’s the rest of them. Tom Mulcair finally got what he wanted: Trudeau made the big mistake that will lose him…oops. The election was eight months ago. Well, we still get a chance to yell and scream and…and act like the worst sort of schoolyard bully: the kind who antagonizes the other kids, then runs and hides behind the teacher saying, “He hit me, he hit me.”
I have a certain amount of sympathy for Ruth-Ellen Brosseau, who had every right to expect not to be shoved around in the House of Commons. But even her situation is too ingenuous to believe. The whole premise of the parliamentary stunt was based on the expectation of good manners. “The Liberals are in a hurry, and we’re angry at them. So we can stand around here and physically keep them from getting their way, because nobody would dare to physically move us. It just wouldn’t be polite.” Hoping against hope that some idiot on the other side will lose it, take the bait and do something stupid. See the preceding paragraph, as we run and hide behind the media, screaming our outrage. I have some political advice for her. The person who gets the best response from the public in a situation like that is the one who sucks it up, acts strong and forgives. Breaking down in tears and running away, then coming back and acting put-upon and wronged gets you sympathy from only your own supporters, which you had already. Everybody else thinks you’re making political points. Because you are.
And in the “Get Real” Section.
What the opposition party missed the chance to use was the real reason behind their complaint. The Liberals, in spite of their great fanfare about open and democratic government, have been using heavy-handed procedures to get their agenda accomplished, stacking committees with their members and limiting the time for debate. This is the real problem, the real story the media should be up in arms about. But no, it all got lost in a bunch of school kids screaming abuse at each other. Thanks, Liberals, for making such a difference.
Latest Update:
The Parliamentary All-Party High Poo-bah Political Correctness Committee decided that the elbow was inadvertent. As everybody already knew, but Parliament likes to make these things official. Would that they were so rigorous in their tracking of the tax money they spend on our behalf. MP Brousseau finally decided to take the high road, asking that we “put it all behind us,” which is pol-speak for “we’ve wrung all we can out of this one, let’s focus on the next opportunity.”
Second Problem: The Senate
The reason the Liberals are so worried about getting this specific piece of legislation passed is that the Supreme Court gave the preceding government until June 6 to create regulations around Assisted Dying. After that date, there will officially be no law on the subject in this country. Well, sort of.
Assisted death: What happens if there’s no new law?
So the Liberals, in spite of their ham-handed muscle flexing, have succeed in mashing the bill through Parliament. But can it get through the Senate in time?
Well, we have to remember that the Senate has been under attack lately for all sorts of things, including their rather swinish actions at the public trough. Their response? They try to demonstrate how important they really are by taking “several weeks” to consider the bill before allowing it to pass. Big mistake. Most people will see it as the Senate flexing their muscles, getting revenge on parliament for daring to question their god-given right to slop up at the trough. The result will only hasten their own demise.
And in the “Get Real” Section
There is no real emergency. On June 6 the Wild West will not break out. Trump Hotels will not immediately replace Houses of Parliament. Nazi death camps will not suddenly become the order of the day. Provincial medical associations have already created guidelines, many of them stricter than the federal legislation. So it’s a tempest in a tea pot, and the Liberals are using it as an excuse to flex their parliamentary muscles. Well, the best part is that it’s all falling apart around them, as they richly deserve.
Third Stupidity: Polls Show Clinton and Trump Neck-and-Neck.
Give me a break. Sure, there’s all sorts of Sanders supporters who swear they’ll never vote for Clinton. But I’d guess the group that supports Sanders consists for the most part of intelligent, thoughtful people. Faced with the choice of voting for an experienced Democrat who will turn out to be a reasonable president, or not voting at all and allowing Trump to win, I’m sure a large number of them will bite the bullet, hold their noses and cast their vote for the least unpleasant choice. I mean, look at the publicity. The only weakness Clinton’s enemies have to harp about is her use of emails. Match that up against Trump’s schizophrenic diatribes, and decide who you’d rather have lead the Free World. Or what’s left of it (see Canadian Parliament, above).
Why Are the Polls so Wrong?
It’s the one thing that gives me hope for the future of democracy. My readers probably thought they’d never hear me say it, but I suspect the average voter has a certain degree of sense. What they say to the pollsters, the media, and their Internet friends in the leadup to an election is only what they wish would happen. Faced with the solemn responsibility of voting, many of them will think twice and make a reasoned decision.
Ask the Wild Rose Party in Alberta, whom everyone thought was a shoo-in for the provincial election in 2012, but by 2014 only had 25% of the seats in the legislature. Ask Tom Mulcair, who was leading in the polls three months before the 2015 federal vote, and ended up the sacrificial goat for the party’s return to its usual 10% of parliamentary seats. Of course, his actions in the House of Commons last week show how richly he deserved it.
Polls can only show how the people are feeling at a given moment, and thus their findings are highly suspect when trying to predict how people will act in different circumstances. How many times have you planned how you’re going handle a stressful situation, and then walked into the meeting and changed your plans, because meeting the people face to face made you realize that what you planned was wrong?
Unfortunately, politicians tend to forge ahead with their ears firmly shut and ask the pollsters later how they did. Maybe it would be better if more regular voters picked up the phone once in a while and gave their MP their real opinion.
Or you could always share this blog around 🙂