Thursday, January 07, 2010

They lie because they're cowards.


It's curious that, as the Stephen Harper Party of Canada continues to contemptuously dismiss the rest of the country, they don't have the courage to be honest about what they're up to. In a nutshell, they're such cowards that they have to lie.

Consider the latest fiasco regarding prorogation. The official Conservative Party line is that this has nothing to do with avoiding the tough questions regarding Afghan detainees, oh, no, it's all about, uh, getting ready for the Olympics, and taking a breather, and "resetting" Parliament for another year, and other ridiculous fairy tales that absolutely no one believes. But this raises the obvious question: why doesn't Harper tell the truth?

Why doesn't Harper just come out and say, "We prorogued Parliament because we're tired of the bitching and whining from the Opposition and we don't give a crap about prisoners or torture so the rest of you can all suck it because I'm shutting this place down and you can all go bitch and whine somewhere else for the next couple months."

Why doesn't Harper just say it that way? It's not like he cares what the rest of the country thinks, and it's painfully obvious that he holds the electorate in utter contempt. Why not just say what everyone else already knows? Instead, we have the image of the cocky, swaggering Stephen Harper, reduced to making shit up because he's too gutless to be honest. And that's just the latest in a long line of cowardly lies.

Consider Harper's lies with respect to Afghan detainees. Wouldn't it have been refreshing if he'd just said, "I don't give a crap about that because those people are brown with funny names, and they don't interest me in the slightest. Fuck 'em." At least he would have been honest. Instead, blustery Harper had to take a back seat to cowardly Harper, who made up excuse after excuse, every one of which crumbled under even the slightest inspection. And the pattern continues as you go back in time.

Consider Harper's lie about why he called the 2008 election considerably ahead of time (and in violation of his own "fixed election dates" law). The excuse was that he had no choice since his minority government had "lost the confidence" of Parliament. Ignore, of course, that he hadn't lost a single vote of confidence. He could have just said, "Hey, we're looking good in the polls, time to go for a majority, we'll take our chances." He could have been honest that way. He wasn't. He lied like the coward he is.

It even extends to cowardly lies involving individuals, when the Conservatives claimed that, hey, they'd love to help out Abousfian Abdelrazik but, gosh darn it, he's on a U.N. no-fly list and there's nothing they can do about it, what a shame. As most people pointed out at the time, that very U.N. law expressly permits nationals to be returned to their country of citizenship, but that made no difference whatsoever to Harper and his collection of criminals. Wouldn't it have been a relief if Harper had simply said, "No, we're not bringing Abdelrazik back, he's brown and I don't really care for brown people." At least we would have known where we stood.

It is ever thus with the cowardly Stephen Harper. Full of piss and vinegar and braggadocio and contempt, but the instant he's called on anything, it's cowardly Stephen Harper who suddenly starts inventing massive fibs. Come on, Stephen. If you want to accuse everyone else of being spineless wimps who buckle under the first sign of pressure, at least lead by example and be honest about your motives. This constant stream of fiction is really quite unbecoming for someone who claims to be a leader.

If you're going to totally fuck over the country and its citizens, have the balls to be honest about it.

AFTERSNARK: There are so many cowardly lies, I could be here all day. One of my favourites is when Harper bitched and moaned about a possible coalition back in 2008 and described it as "overturning the results of the last election." It would have done no such thing, of course, and it was entirely constitutional.

Why didn't Harper just say what was really on his mind, "How dare the rabble seek to supplant me?" Instead, once again, arrogant Harper quickly sat down, and was replaced by cowardly Harper who simply lied.

It's not that Harper's such a pathological liar that bugs me. It's that he's such a coward that I find so grating.

7 comments:

sooey said...

I think he's stupid. And I think he knows he's stupid. That's why he was so desperate to mention his "fellow economists". He actually thinks people still respect economists, even after last year.

theo said...

All true CC, but let’s be more precise. That Harper and his ilk are cowards and liars is like saying the sun rises every morning. Harper is an ideology driven power junky with a narcissistic bent but he isn’t suicidal. He knows perfectly well if he told the truth his current fix of power junky control would vanish like the proverbial snowflake in hell.

CC said...

Quite right, theo, but let's not lose sight of the irony I was trying to identify. While Canada's big-C Conservatives howl with laughter over the ineptitude, incompetence and (let's face it) outright impotence of the Opposition, they're the absolute masters of running cowardly from their own positions.

I have yet to see them defend one of their positions with actual honesty. It's always fiction. Always.

The Seer said...

In order to be helpful to my Canadian friends, I propose a compromise:

But before I get to the compromise may I remind you that George W. Bush managed to decide everything he needed to decide while spending a third of his presidency on vacation. The advantage The [Original] Decider had was that he was not expected to spend half the day in Congress, responding to every mealy-mouthed left-wing fifth-columnist in Washington.

Think about this. Any run-of-the-mill prime minister is busy. But HMPM Stephen Harper is even busier because he shoulders the entire burden of government in Canada.

But he gets no respect.

If he said what he thinks, the lefties in the press would literally go — you keep talking about Republics like this so let's say it — Bananas. Shutting down Parliament is one thing; shutting down the main stream media — or the CBC — is something else. Not to mention the blogosphere.

I think as a compromise, we ought to agree that the prime minister doesn't have to sit in Parliament any more, so he can concentrate on governing Canada. Then you can have your Parliament, and the members can argue all they want, but it won't interfere with anything. After all, Caesar let the Senate keep meeting even after he became Emperor, though this did not go well for Caesar in the end, which, Caesar got that point about fifty times in one afternoon. But Caesar didn't have a security detail with all those Mounties.

ForestP said...

The benign dictatorship is what he's after. Rule with absolute power and affection, and the plebes will consider him merciful.

Really hoping Canadians have enough of a spine to send this guy packing, I really really do.

Also, what kind of extenuating circumstances would force an emergency session of parliament before March 3rd? Anyone know?

sooey said...

He made a bad call and now he's going to lose. Happens all the time in politics.

Merklin Muffley said...

In my riding, Northumberland-Quinte West, we enjoy the services of The Backbencher's Backbencher -Rick Norlock, MP. Mr. Norlock, a Harper Bum Boy all the way and former O.P.P. officer is (or lasdt time I checked he was) on the board of a canned hunting group that went after pet elks in Montana. Mr. Norlock has garnered a certain degree of attention because he is King Of The Mail-outs -$87,000 in flyers last year alone. And no wonder. The big duffus does SFA except sit around with his size twelves up on the desk waiting for the phone to ring while he makes elastic band cat's cradles to the astonishment of his staff and family -mostly one and the same. But....he'll get re-elected. Why? Because the Highway Of Heroes runs through this benighted riding and Sgt. ick is there front and centre every time some baby-faced kid gets a ride into T.O. for a free autopsy. Yep, if Rick Norlock is stupid, what does that say about The Bridgell People -the Made-In-China flag wavers that stand on those godamned bridges and strive to out-patriot each other each and every time. They're the simpletons that vote unquestioningly (they do almost everything unquestioningly) for Conservative Values each and every time. They, along with The Three Stooges, George W.Bush, Osama bin-Laden, Anita Bryant and Lassie, all signed the 62,000-signature Highway Of Heroes petition which, in my opinion, like all Internet petitions, isn't worth the paper it isn't printed on. But by gawd there's no shortage of these three-pack-a-day knuckle draggers and, to our eternal shame, they have the same right to vote as anyone else. And they'll vote for Rick Norlock every time. Gauranteed.