The Canadians have spoken and they are rejecting anti-Americanism and appeasement and socialism. Not surprising: they're just rejecting what doesn't work and voting for what does!
Full round up HERE and HERE and HERE.
Canada thus joins a long list of nations which have stayed Right or shifted Right and gotten closer to Amercia since Bush became president (which si contrary to the meme the MSM wants you believe: that Bush has alienated the world and that Bush's advocacy for conservative policies is out of step with people everywhere).
Here's the truth, Poland, Denmark, Australia, the UK (in keeping Blair), Japan, Portugal, Germany have all had elections which strengthened the Right, strengnthened pro-Amercian politicians, and brought their nations more in step with the USA in the GWOT. And all have had elections which have weakened the Left.
ASIDE: What are your theories as to why virtually the entire Hispano/Latino world (except for Portugal) is the ONLY part of the world which is shifting LEFT-ward!?
Spain had the Atocha Attack, sure. But the fact that Argentina and Brasil and Venezuela, and recently Bolivia have shifted to the Left and to more anti-Americanism demonstrates SOMETHING ELSE IS AT PLAY IN THE HISPANO WORLD - and in a big way.
I think it is strange expecially because all the nations/societies/cultures of the Hispano wolrd are very Catholic, and that's usually a thing which tends to make a place/a people more conservative and traditional.
Please hypothesize in the comment section - while I ponder...
[I think that it is PROBABLY anger based: they see that they have been out-produced by their hated Norte Americano rivals and Anglos in general (witness the transfomation of th UK and even Ireland, since the Reagan-Thatcher anti-tax anti-BIG GOVERNMENT revolution the 1980's), and also that they have been "leap-frogged" by Asians.
Instead of doing what we did to become more propserous (we became more "Hayekian"), they have REACTED IN ANGER, and have unknowingly and unintentionally embraced policies which are self-destructive - namely Leftist policies (policies that haven't worked well anywhere at anytime). This Leftward lurch of the Hispano world is definitely a reactionary lurch - a reaction to their own failures, a reaction urged on by shameless demagogues like Chavez and Morales and Zapatero.
Maybe this is the necessary combination: (1) a national sense of having been slighted "unfairly" (by the USA and the IMF, etc - they REFUSE to accept any repsonsibility themselves), and (2) demagogues who shamelessly pander to the hate and the fear, instead of proposing practical proven solutions - once that have short-term pain and long-term, widespread gain.
Dunno. It's a work in progress. Please help me out and tell me your thoughts.]
6 comments:
The past few days, I have had a nice Canadian man, patiently explaining to me and my readers why America is a fascist nation, run by the military industrial complex.
Well, now it looks like Canada is also going fascist. I guess the guy had better move to Venezuela.
maybe the first commenter TERRAPOD has it.
but it still bugs me.
after all, the best way to cure poverty is NOT transferring money from the rich to the poor 9via a "benevolent goverment" redistributing money by taxing the rich.
that's been PROVEN to just create waste and fraud and dependency. china and the korea's prove it beyond any reasonable doubt.
hayekian principles actually cure poverty by enabling poor people to become richer, build and keep and transfer their own assets.
so why do leftist pols appaeals work on the poor?
maybe becasue the leftists demagogic rants are simpler and appeal to covetousness and revenge.
but also:
it sorta boggles the mind that ther free market is MORE EFFICIENT than a politburo of benevolent know-it-alls.
i find that the best mataphor to use with lefties who are skeptical about the effectiuveness of the free market is a network of PC's.
strung together, all the pc's in the world could oput perform the best super computer.
also: the pc users have a DOIVER SITY of perspectives and insights ands knoiwledge and esxperience
AND COLLECTIVELY the aggregate valuation they all put on a good or serrvice is a truer statemtn of its value than any that could be put together by a dozen or so people NO MATTER HOW SMART THEY ARE.
it's like the surowieki "carny" example:
in a contes to guess the number of marbles in ahuge jar, the average guess of everyone guessing is always more accurate than a dozen or so so-called experts.
poor people think they get screwed by the market.
actually, they are given more opportunity to become wealthier by an expanding market and that is mopst likely to happen when people are free to make and buy and sell whatever they want.
i thinkl that we need more reragans and thatchers and teng tsao pings and rao's and other who can convionce the doubters that leftism is the road to serfdom and the free market the road to properity.
as i have asaid over and over:
prosperity is s by-product of liberty.
the things is jerks like moralkes.fidel.chavez/zapatero blame the USA/imf for their own problems. and people believe them.
maybe the problem is that Hispano Amerioca is not wired into the internet. after all, if people actually knew what worked they would choose it, NO!?
so, if cubans and north koreans and vietnamese were free to see that capitalism is the solution not the problem, they'd overthtrow their overlords and join the Free World.
i alos think that if we can topple the Left here in the USA (and in old europe) that we can defeat it in the third world.
that's one reason i rant and rale on the left at this blog.\
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later...
Here's my theory-- although I could be wrong :-).
At first, Hispanic & Arab cultures seem quite different. But they have one thing in common: they are based on "honor" (and therefore the opposite = avoiding "shame"). In this type of society, avoiding "humiliation", being "macho", etc is paramount.
"Desecrate" a Koran? Well, it seems to me its only a book, paper & ink. But to a Muslim, his religion (and therefore his honor) is attacked-- people have died in riots when they thought Korans were desecrated. Its all about their "honor"..burning a Koran, he believes, humiliates him.
"Honor killings"...if a girl is raped, she is considered to have brought dishonor to her family, so she is killed. Again, honor is key (seems crazy to us, but its more important to them than even human life).
Hispanic "honor"? Go up to a Hispanic male and tell him his sister (or mother is a whore). He will resemble an Arab who thinks a Koran is "desecrated". [Warning "Don't try this at home!!! I was only using it to make a point!]
or...publish some cartoons of Mohammed in a newspaper. If a cartoon is insulting to, say, a Christian, he might get angry...but he won't be seething like Moslems were....its doubtful that he'd get diplomats form many Christian countries to file a forma protest, lol! Many moslems felt the publication of the cartoons left them powerless, and was a major "humiliation" (it "dishonored" them).
In all these cases, there is no actual harm done. We would be somewhat annoyed, but not the way they are. They totaslly freak...they feel an insult to their "honor" is equivalent to an attack on their being...
in these societies, the concepts of honor, humliation are somehow also tied in with power/powerlessness, control/losing control, sexual desires/fear of sexuality. (I bleieve psychological traits appear as opposite polarities).
Here are two recent articles that are somewhat related:
1. Shame, the Arab Psyche, and Islam
2. Rushdie: West Underestimates Role of Sexual Fears in Islamic Violence
krishman 109: machismo! eureka (maybe?!) - certainly a fascinating connection. i must think it through. great suggestion.
One might also add that Iberian culture must have been very influenced by 700 years of jihadist oppression.
However, PORTUGAL yesterday elected an admirer of Margaret Thatcher as President. He is the first right-of-center President since 1974.
Gandalin
y'wanna knw whats wrong with canada?
I just asked a young woman what part of canada she comes from...
she answered "the french part"
when are they going to grow up and be canadians...ay?
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