Also the unions in the US are infected by a particular odious disease. More and more people in the US are not anymore motivated by making the world a better place for all, or at least by making it a better place for themselves. There is a growing group that is more motivated to make the world a worse place for people that they consider “other”. They are getting satisfaction from making life more miserable for others, even if that makes life worse for themselves as well (as long as it is worse for the others).
Trump tapped into this sentiment brilliantly and convinced large groups to completely vote against their own interests, just because he promised to make life miserable or a complete hell for “others”. These people cannot not be convinced by sound policy or a rationale on how their lives would improve under a different president, they are not interested in this at all.
Unfortunately we are seeing the same in Canada. It is easy to pick on trans children and teachers who are trying to protect them. It is much harder and expensive to fund public properly and provide a decent education. Slowly but surely, also in Canada, we are going see politicians tap into these kind of sentiments.
“The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”
i was listening to a FDR speech about the Forgotten Man and his new deal lifting the country from the bottom up. Dems sank when they abandoned this. Trump will actually do nothing for the Forgotten Man, but he does sound like them, he shows up on their media, and he says things they like to hear. He has created a perception with them, which is more than the Dems who sent their jobs to Mexico
I think your last paragraph is much more accurate than your title. It’s not the death of transactional politics, it’s a new understanding of them. And the left has been very, very slow in learning the new rules
The big federal tax cut of a few years ago didn’t even make a ripple. But the UCP in Alberta is having their AGM soon and the agenda shows a big enthusiastic group of people who are very clear on the quid-pro-quos they’re interested in, none of which have anything to do with anything resembling traditional economic interests.
Across the country, collapsing hospitals and ballooning class sizes simply aren’t moving the needle anywhere. At the same time, a regional Middle East conflict is causing ten times the domestic upheavals than any domestic issues are.
I suspect Trudeau’s TMX purchase will go down as the official death of old transactional politics. The people who he bought it for seemed almost offended than he thought they actually cared about the reality of the thing rather than its symbolism, which made whether it got built or not almost beside the point
Also the unions in the US are infected by a particular odious disease. More and more people in the US are not anymore motivated by making the world a better place for all, or at least by making it a better place for themselves. There is a growing group that is more motivated to make the world a worse place for people that they consider “other”. They are getting satisfaction from making life more miserable for others, even if that makes life worse for themselves as well (as long as it is worse for the others).
Trump tapped into this sentiment brilliantly and convinced large groups to completely vote against their own interests, just because he promised to make life miserable or a complete hell for “others”. These people cannot not be convinced by sound policy or a rationale on how their lives would improve under a different president, they are not interested in this at all.
Unfortunately we are seeing the same in Canada. It is easy to pick on trans children and teachers who are trying to protect them. It is much harder and expensive to fund public properly and provide a decent education. Slowly but surely, also in Canada, we are going see politicians tap into these kind of sentiments.
“The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”
Do you happen to know the author? It is spot on, unfortunately.
i was listening to a FDR speech about the Forgotten Man and his new deal lifting the country from the bottom up. Dems sank when they abandoned this. Trump will actually do nothing for the Forgotten Man, but he does sound like them, he shows up on their media, and he says things they like to hear. He has created a perception with them, which is more than the Dems who sent their jobs to Mexico
I think your last paragraph is much more accurate than your title. It’s not the death of transactional politics, it’s a new understanding of them. And the left has been very, very slow in learning the new rules
The big federal tax cut of a few years ago didn’t even make a ripple. But the UCP in Alberta is having their AGM soon and the agenda shows a big enthusiastic group of people who are very clear on the quid-pro-quos they’re interested in, none of which have anything to do with anything resembling traditional economic interests.
Across the country, collapsing hospitals and ballooning class sizes simply aren’t moving the needle anywhere. At the same time, a regional Middle East conflict is causing ten times the domestic upheavals than any domestic issues are.
I suspect Trudeau’s TMX purchase will go down as the official death of old transactional politics. The people who he bought it for seemed almost offended than he thought they actually cared about the reality of the thing rather than its symbolism, which made whether it got built or not almost beside the point
It is likely about swing state politics, given the blue collar quotient in key swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania etc.