Fear and politics

Time to get back in the swing of blogging. This one admittedly needs some refinement.

Since when has politics been so polarizing, so scary, so uninviting? Partisan rhetoric has been upped in just about every avenue, from municipal politics, provincial, federal, and the recent events of the American midterm elections yesterday.

I'll start by admitting that the recession has been very tough on everyone. I was one of the lucky ones - after less than 2 months of unemployment (and one of those, I spent studying full-time for the LSATs), I was able to find a great job with a national charity, in the field I was looking for (not-for-profit), relatively close to home.

But back to my point. Fear is everywhere. Voters are scared and angry, it appears that nobody knows which way is up and which way is down, and nobody seems to have any solution out of it. A Toronto Sun article cites a poll that states 52% of Canadians and 51% of Americans think the next generation will be worse off than this one is. In the same poll, 55% of Canadians agreed with the statement, "It doesn’t matter what I think or do about politics in Canada, nothing will change."

US Midterm election exit polling shows that 62% of voters think the country is on the wrong track. And with vicious attack ads everywhere, fear of the Tea Party, and fear of socialism, there's one poll I wish I could find the link to. While watching last night's CNN election coverage, they featured an exit poll that showed the majority of voters in 48 of the 50 states cast their ballot against someone (whether it be a candidate, Obama, Pelosi, etc) instead of for someone.

If this sounds shocking, it shouldn't. The Toronto election was a mere 9 days ago. George Smitherman tried to unite voters against the fear of Rob Ford. Many Ford voters backed him due to the (not 100% correct) fear of Smitherman's $1 billion track record, and all candidates trumpeted the fear of Toronto's debt without mentioning that this fiscal year, Toronto is running a surplus.

And yet, though I can't take my experiences as an expressive sign of the economy, I'll give you this. I have approximately 1km of outdoor walk to work each day, plus the subway. On that 1km walk, the number of 'help wanted' signs I see in businesses has risen, from 0 to 1, 2, 3 and now 4 I see daily. Some have been up for 3 months. Understand that I'm not trying to trivialize the plight of many people who can't find jobs, but someone desperate for a job could be filling that position right now. And slowly but surely, my friends who are also recent graduates are finding full-time employment. Isn't this a sign of some improvement? It might be. The start of the Toronto election was alright, with some inspired talk over different transit plans for the city. But the election slowly turned into a war. Between bike-riders and car drivers. Between suburbs and downtown. Between the "gravy-train" and the "anti-immigrant". Between "voting your heart" and "stopping the other". It may have been time for a right-wing swing, but surely someone could have come up with a positive right-wing idea to support it, instead of hyping the fear of the left, the fear of immigration, and the fear of streetcars.

What's driving this fear? Is it the overtly partisan nature of all government? The Canadian federal government is running a minority as if they had a majority, cutting the census for fear of "statistics", and (I'll admit unsuccessfully) trying to play to Russian fears as a justification for buying jets. Where they are successful, is continuing to effectively demonize the Liberal party, where Ignatieff can't gain any ground.

In Ontario, McGuinty is being slammed from left and right (literally), on the same talking points, for every decision. Introduce an eco-tax? Get slammed. Repeal the eco-tax - get slammed for being a flip flopper. Propose a power plant in Oakville? Get slammed. Cancel plans for the power plant in response to local opposition - he must be doing it for partisan purposes, of course. Introduce the HST? Up in arms but without the public outrage as in BC. But the federal partner in the HST gets off scot-free. A multi-billion dollar wind farm deal. Not creating jobs, helping hospitals or students. Spending into a deficit. What government can win in this situation? If a government gets attacked for every decision, and then attacked again for reversing the "quotation-mark-wrong" ones, why not just govern and "do the right thing" in isolation for the next year until they get trounced?

And then the US. Obama rides a 2008 wave of "change" and multipartisan cooperation. The Republicans use every tactic refusing to budge one inch on any issue, while right-wing Democrats seize the occasion to drive their own wedges. Operating in this toxic environment, trying to meet in the middle but being rebuffed at every turn, Obama arguably saved capitalism while ushering in healthcare reform, one of the biggest game-changers in American history. And how do the voters respond? Half the Democrats think he didn't go far enough. Most Republicants ignore the facts (including the one that Bush began the bailout process) and hurl the "socialism" label at the bailouts (which will turn a hefty profit for the administration) and the healthcare reform (which will save billions of dollars).

Left, right, middle, blue, red, orange or green. How can anyone survive politics in this toxic environment? Obama was the voice of change who was successfully elected. And the status quo defenders dug in their heels to make every inch as hard as possible. The Tea Party have openly declared their unwillingless to work on any issues that aren't their own. Harper is openly mortgaging Canada's future decision-making power without being punished at the polls. Voters are mad at Liberals for reacting to public opinion, and Toronto is divided into downtown vs not downtown.

North America is getting older. Parties and individuals with a Conservative bent are getting stronger as the baby boomers are set to retire. But nobody is happy with what they're doing; they're just mad at anybody who is an incumbant right now. But the left has been unable to galvalnize their base: the parties of the poor and working class are losing elections and support. French workers mobilize in the streets, and North America yawns. The young aren't rebelling against the institution here as they would have in past generations; they're knowingly or unknowingly slowly shifting to the existing "only alternatives" without supporting the NDP, Green Party, or Joe Pantalone.

What can be done? How can people start trusting politics again?

Here's the depressing climax of this blog post. I have absolutely no idea. Which parties will get the credit when the economy finally rebounds? Will voters continue swinging wildly left-to-right-to-left-to-right-to-left at every election? Where are the new, charismatic leaders to give people hope? Where is the spirit of cooperation present in some (though certainly not all - definitely not all) European countries?

Can't anybody debate civily, speak about their ideas and not their opponent's supposed record, and inspire people?

I have the shirt from '08. I don't see it happening in '12. Regardless of whether Obama wins or loses the next presidential election, did anyone see the underpinnings of the impending, legitimate presidential run for 2016 happen last weekend?