Dief The Chief
05/06/08 03:16 PM
I remember well
the feeling of helplessness that came over me when I
first got involved in politics in the early 70’s.
Young, inexperienced, more heart the head, I was a
large “L” Liberal at a time when it was a good thing
to be. I’ d like to be trite and say that the earnest
young ladies of the NDP, with their sturdy shoes and
shop floor haircuts, could not compete with the
bra-less and occasionally bra-burning Liberal Ladies
League but the truth is that it was not the ladies
nor the parties but the late night discussions about
policy that drew me to the Trudeau camp and kept me
away from the party of David Lewis, a man I greatly
admired.
It was policy and more importantly, a sense that what we were doing was going to have an effect on the world around us, was actually going to mean something, that stirred our hearts and drove us to work ridiculous hours and give up so much of our family life for The Cause.
The helplessness came when we would rub up against old time Conservative voters, either at the door while canvassing, or while involved in some community activity. With the zeal of the freshly converted I would rattle off the benefits of Liberalism and the sins of Conservatism. How one uplifted the spirit and the other crushed the little guy. Time after time these grizzled Tories would nod their heads in agreement about how the last Conservative government of John G. Diefenbaker had bungled one policy after another and we would exclaim how we just could not understand how Dief had ever been elected in the first place. They would agree, smile and every damn one of them would say with an almost beatific smile on their faces, “ He may have been all of those things, but “BOY, HE SURE COULD GIVE A GOOD SPEECH”.
That was it for these folks, damn the results, never mind the carnage, “HE GAVE A GOOD SPEECH” was all that was necessary to win the hearts and minds and wallets and votes of these morons with voting privileges. Unbelievable!
This past Tuesday, I heard it again, as if from some far distant memory, “WHAT AN ORATOR”, “GREAT SPEECH”, “REALLY STIRRED THE CROWD” , were the words I heard the talking heads exclaim over and over, as if that really meant something.
I suppose it does however, much as it pains me to say it. It means Barack Obama is the NEXT BIG THING and woe betide anyone or anything who gets in the way of his rhetoric or dares to parse his actual words.
I dare though, I mean, I know most people today are sheep. The polls tell me every day that even in the face of tons of real evidence to the contrary, most of the folks I share this hemisphere with actually believe that A: Global warming is a real and present threat. and B: That not only did ‘we’ (they usually mean me though) cause it, that we can actually do something about it.
So you see, I am used to seeing this kind of blind acceptance of the public utterances of morons like Al Gore and David Suzuki but surely there has to be some kind of means test applied to the words of the guy who would be the next President of Everything. The guy said the following, to thunderous applause, (sic) “ today is the day that the oceans stopped rising”, ... “today is the day our planet began to heal”. I mean come on, this guy is talking about how June 3, 2008, the day he decided to declare himself, cause you know, Hillary has not decided yet if it is true or not, the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party for the 08 elections, will go down in history as the day the oceans stopped rising!!! The planet began to heal!!!
This guy should not be worried that folks may call him by his middle name, Hussein. He should be concerned that folks will call him Knud, the Viking King who anointed himself with the power to stop the tides just about 1000 years ago. (1016)
Rapture is what I saw on the faces of the crowd Tuesday night. Awe is what I perceived on the minds and lips of the talking heads of Fox News as they reported this event. But I got to tell you, all I could hear, in that little nagging voice back behind my tired eyes, was, “BOY, HE SURE COULD GIVE A GOOD SPEECH” !
Hang on to your hats, here they come again.
30
It was policy and more importantly, a sense that what we were doing was going to have an effect on the world around us, was actually going to mean something, that stirred our hearts and drove us to work ridiculous hours and give up so much of our family life for The Cause.
The helplessness came when we would rub up against old time Conservative voters, either at the door while canvassing, or while involved in some community activity. With the zeal of the freshly converted I would rattle off the benefits of Liberalism and the sins of Conservatism. How one uplifted the spirit and the other crushed the little guy. Time after time these grizzled Tories would nod their heads in agreement about how the last Conservative government of John G. Diefenbaker had bungled one policy after another and we would exclaim how we just could not understand how Dief had ever been elected in the first place. They would agree, smile and every damn one of them would say with an almost beatific smile on their faces, “ He may have been all of those things, but “BOY, HE SURE COULD GIVE A GOOD SPEECH”.
That was it for these folks, damn the results, never mind the carnage, “HE GAVE A GOOD SPEECH” was all that was necessary to win the hearts and minds and wallets and votes of these morons with voting privileges. Unbelievable!
This past Tuesday, I heard it again, as if from some far distant memory, “WHAT AN ORATOR”, “GREAT SPEECH”, “REALLY STIRRED THE CROWD” , were the words I heard the talking heads exclaim over and over, as if that really meant something.
I suppose it does however, much as it pains me to say it. It means Barack Obama is the NEXT BIG THING and woe betide anyone or anything who gets in the way of his rhetoric or dares to parse his actual words.
I dare though, I mean, I know most people today are sheep. The polls tell me every day that even in the face of tons of real evidence to the contrary, most of the folks I share this hemisphere with actually believe that A: Global warming is a real and present threat. and B: That not only did ‘we’ (they usually mean me though) cause it, that we can actually do something about it.
So you see, I am used to seeing this kind of blind acceptance of the public utterances of morons like Al Gore and David Suzuki but surely there has to be some kind of means test applied to the words of the guy who would be the next President of Everything. The guy said the following, to thunderous applause, (sic) “ today is the day that the oceans stopped rising”, ... “today is the day our planet began to heal”. I mean come on, this guy is talking about how June 3, 2008, the day he decided to declare himself, cause you know, Hillary has not decided yet if it is true or not, the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party for the 08 elections, will go down in history as the day the oceans stopped rising!!! The planet began to heal!!!
This guy should not be worried that folks may call him by his middle name, Hussein. He should be concerned that folks will call him Knud, the Viking King who anointed himself with the power to stop the tides just about 1000 years ago. (1016)
Rapture is what I saw on the faces of the crowd Tuesday night. Awe is what I perceived on the minds and lips of the talking heads of Fox News as they reported this event. But I got to tell you, all I could hear, in that little nagging voice back behind my tired eyes, was, “BOY, HE SURE COULD GIVE A GOOD SPEECH” !
Hang on to your hats, here they come again.
30
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