There's a certain kind of cold bland repression that can be hard to parse emotionally. Uncle Dick over there, so quiet at all the family gatherings -- is he a sociopath who tortures squirrels in his basement? Or is he just the old-fashioned type, strong and silent? They think well of him at the office, after all. Americans have by now figured out exactly what to think of Uncle Dick Cheney, but only after a wishful media spent years presenting him as just the sort of grown-up we all want to have in charge. Fascism not being much of a dealbreaker, I believe the scales only really tipped when he shot that guy in the face.
Uncle Steve, he of the fuzzy sweater, is having his face-shooting moment right now. Anyone who's been paying attention has known for years that Harper was an obsessional partisan, a relentless liar and hypocrite with a real distaste for the common good. But now word has really got out. The problem is, of course, that this isn't just a personal style: it's a political strategy, imported from the US Republicans, and quite a few Canadians are happy to openly support it. Those who don't need to push back as hard as we can, right now.
Unfortunately, the risks involved in the proposed coalition are complex and enormous. If the Governor-General blinks and prorogues, part of me will be very relieved. But if she does, and if it comes to be spun as a victory for Harper, then it will also be the first clear-cut national victory in Canada for scorched-earth Republican thuggery. For the Karl Rove machinery of open lies (there was no flag!), hypocrisy (dealing with separatists!), fearmongering (it's a coup d'etat!), astroturf campaigning ('Rally for Canada!') and plain old-fashioned bullying in every direction. To simplify just a little: the politics of hatred. If the politics of hatred wins now, the Conservative Party will be wedded to it for the foreseeable future: at this point, they have nothing else. And they will get better and better at it until maybe some day a Canadian Obama comes along. I can't quite figure out what the Western wingnuts fear from the Bloc Quebecois, but I sure as hell know why I think this country is in serious danger.
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