Tuesday, January 10, 2006

POLITICS??

I hate to wade into this topic on my blog here cause pretty much if you want to keep your freinds you should not talk about politics. But I've been known to throw caution to the wind before...

Rick Mercer is a political comedian that I enjoy - he makes me laugh. He gets paid to make lots of people laugh. He uses politics as his platform. Having been a fairly ardent Liberal supporter in the past I have winced at his often cutting expose of the errors of the Liberal arrogance. I have come to acknowledge it may very well be time to turf the Liberals from office. And yes I guess Rick's show and his comments have helped ease the sting of rejecting my long standing allegiance to the party. I say all this becuase I want to make it clear - Rick Mercer's agenda is to make us laugh - I think. Just so we can get that out of the way. He loves to use sarcasm and irony to highlight the humor is some pretty ugly spectacles in our politcal realm. that said...

I went to his blog today and read the following posting from him. (click on the highlighted words to read it).

So as I read that I was disturbed!

Now before you criticize my penchant for being disturbed at this let me once again acknowledge a few things.
1. You can cut and paste quotes to fit your ironic sense of humor if you want to.
2. The guy is trying to get laugh out of it all.
3. There are likely equally bothersome quotes and charateristics about candidates for the other parties
4. It is your right to dismiss all these comments because of the previous three reasons.

What bothered me was a sense of embarrasment at the idea of Christianity was being affixed to some rather bigotted comments. It made me sad really. Now rick may have some personal vendetta against Christians but my gut tells me it really wasn't that hard for him to come up with comments like these to affix these candidates.

I know this might seem like I am trying to disuade you from voting for the Conservatives and I can see how you might take this in that way but then let me say this...

There are a number of policies inlcuding the 4 year term of office and the tax cuts that I could really endorse from my point of view. So the Conservatives may not be a bad choice for responsible people to make.

Vote as you will. But please vote!

Okay you can rip me to shreds now if you like...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe that you are considering voting for someone else. Maybe you have been in Alberta far too long. You've become another convert - a Ralph Cline convert. I find it odd that a minister in a province with the lowest tax rate would be excited about a tax cut. What taxes to you pay?

(The preceeding comment was issued in order to get a rise out of my brother. I was also funded through a secret Liberal adscam to win the support of Albertans)

Anonymous said...

Read much?

Clinton said...

I agree, Dale, "Vote as you will. But please vote!" Personally, I've tried to ascertain the principles which govern the parties and believe I've made my decision based on that rather than on specific policies. I'm of the belief that sound principles will in turn result in sound policies (for the most part). I'm also aware that good policy can be driven by various factors and am trying not to be swayed by policy alone.

I would also tend to agree with you that "it may very well be time to turf the Liberals from office."

I wish for you wisdom on January 23rd (and well beyond)

Increasing... said...

thanks
i am cuaght in the struggle between the ideology which is supposed to govern a party's behavior and thier actual behavior. I too think that ideology should eventually influence the rubber hitting the road.
what disturbed me (and would no matter which party this applied to) was the identification of these people with "Christian" values - it was sad and embarrassing...
i can only imagine that many of my RC brothers and sisters might feel equally embarrassed by Mr. Martins conduct.
bdf

Proffreezer said...

I can just see you and Clinton pounding your pulpit pleading people to vote.

For what?? An institution that has lost all credibility - if you think the church is in trouble with credibility and integrity then you only need to look at the institution of democratic government to see an institution in more of an integrity problem.

Call me to a revolt or to refuse my ballot and you might get me motivated to do something - but to support the institution of government you may as well be standing on the street corner with a bullhorn telling me I'm going to hell. There's got to be a better way.

That being said - I'll likely still vote, just like people showing up to church at Christmas and Easter. But do I believe that my vote will make a difference - hardly.

ps. I read , have no fear.

Increasing... said...

gosh just like old times bro
fun fun
just double checking
we aren't by chance walking away from any traditional interpretation of passages that indicate the establishment of governmental authority as being from God?
I'm as inclined as the next guy to advocate anarchy but hey as winston said, democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.
crap and i had my bullhorn set on "preach it brother!"

Proffreezer said...

Thanks for the laugh - it does feel like old times. Trudy thinks I'm being a pain in the butt. (there were other terms she used) There is some joy in reverting back to being 12 years old and trying to get a rise out of your older brother. Glad you could see the humour in my responses. That's for pointing me to Mercer's blog - I subscribed to the RSS now.