STEPHEN HARPER AND GANG: WINNING THE VOTE WITH RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE

Thwarted lives have the most character-conditioned hate… The easiest idea to sell anyone is that he is better than someone else. The appeal of the Ku Klux Klan and racist agitators rests on this type of salesmanship. – Gordon W. Allport

Frank A. Pelaschuk

On October 19, Canadians will go to the polls. Chances are it will be a Conservative or Liberal minority. Voters will go back to repeating the same stupid mistake they have made since the first Canadian vote took place.

I have heard some people say, “I would vote for the NDP but I’m afraid of splitting the vote and getting Harper for another term”. If every person who offered the same excuse actually voted for the party they say they prefer, the NDP would have gotten in long ago.

These people are disingenuous at best. The truth is they are afraid, too cowardly to take risks even when there are none though they have had plenty of experience with bad, even corrupt governance for the same reason. They prefer the same old same old because they bought the Conservative/Liberal lies and can’t seem to get past their own blind ignorance. We all know the Liberal record and we have had close to ten years of Harper’s scapegoating and law breaking as he and his party benefited by subverting the electoral process.

What is truly astounding is that those who vote for Conservatives have no shame. They clearly do not care about corruption, lack of ethics, honesty, open government, and truth. What is even more alarming, more reprehensible is that these people support Harper’s fomenting of racial and religious intolerance under the guise of protecting women from the “subjugation” of men within a culture. That is, Muslim men and a Muslim culture. Those who support Harper on the niqab issue say that this has nothing to do with racism or religious intolerance. I beg to differ. The courts have ruled on this matter and yet Harper and gang and those supporting them seem to believe that the war against two women should continue. This is bullying. This is politicking at its vilest, meanest and smallest this targeting of minorities to win voters. That was the same appeal that allowed for Hitler and Mussolini. It was racism and religious bigotry then and it’s racism and religious intolerance today.

The Harper gang and those who support them solely on the basis of this one issue represent the worst that Canada has to offer. They support racism and bigotry.

For this I blame Stephen Harper, Jason Kenney, Chris Alexander and all the other hypocrites in the party who have revealed themselves for the straw men and women they truly are. Harper now promises to ban the niqab in public service. That’s a nonissue; no one or almost no one wears the niqab in government offices. He promises to set up a snitch line for those engaging in Barbaric Cultural Practices (i.e., non-Christians, Muslims in other words). He and his filthy group are suggesting such things are common in Canada. It’s not. It doesn’t exist in Canada. On CBC’s Power and Politics, pundit Amanda Alvaro said it best, what the Harper gang is doing is “barbaric political practices”. She is absolutely right in this. Where are the snitch lines for battered women, the murdered and missing women, the child molesters. Oh, right, 911.

Harper claims ours is a “welcoming”, “open” society. Who can believe it when liars, cowards and bigots fan the flames of hatred and so many appear to welcome it?

If Harper can do it to one group, why do you believe you may not be next? Just reflect on these words by Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Trade Unionists.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

Neither silence nor complicity guarantees safety. It’s okay to be afraid, but not okay to stand by and allow Harper to do what he has done. You could be next.

Then what?

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But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing. – Thomas Paine.

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They that can give up essential liberties to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin