On the Streets for Palestine? Please Vote.
We can't afford what the polls in the western world are telling us.
I’ve been hearing about polls in the western world and shaking my head.
Yes, I get that years of austerity make people shift to the right, wanting law and order and predictability. But really? Right wing governments just mean more austerity, more hardship, more war, and more support for Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
There’s a huge part of me that has never understood how this works.
Shouldn’t austerity bring the desire for more social programs, less war, a higher standard of living, better public services and that sort of thing? That’s what I want.
And you know what else? The people on the right have this tactic and it’s embarrassing that it works as well as it does.
What they do is talk like they’re all for the average working person. But guess where they get their funding? From the people who stand to benefit from privatization of vital services, fossil fuel development, and more defence spending, which makes everything more expensive and precarious for us, the regular people.
It also concentrates more money into the hands of the already rich at our expense.
And when these jerks are elected, guess who everyone blames? The working class.
You don’t think some of the profiteers who are funding them also vote for these politicians so they can benefit from the policies they implement?
So if you’re working class, or middle class, or if you’re just really poor, please, PLEASE don’t vote for the people who talk like they care, but will make life even worse for you.
And don’t be duped by the hollowed out left either. Look at each party’s track record. Which groups will their policies benefit? Have they lied? If so, they don’t deserve your vote. Look for candidates whose politics most resemble George Galloway’s in your riding and vote for them.
We can’t afford more of the same.
Here in Canada, we have Pierre Poilievre who is following the script I just described, and is leading in the polls.
According to this article from Breach Media,
Lobbyists for oil and natural resource companies, big banks, telecoms, large retailers, and real estate investors paid for entry to private cash-for-access fundraisers with Poilievre held across the country.
That included one event in the ski and party town of Banff in the spring of 2023 which was attended by former or current heads of major oil and gas companies Enbridge, Cenovus, Suncor, Husky, and Pembina Pipeline Corporation.
In his speech last week, Poilievre proclaimed that “when I’m prime minister my daily obsession will be about what is good for the working class people of this country.” He blasted “corporate lobbyists in Ottawa [who] are focussed on getting lunches with ministers at the Rideau Club,” which is frequented by movers and shakers in the capital.
But according to data analysis by The Breach, these lobbyists have also been focussed on getting dinners with the potential Prime Minister-to-be at exclusive venues like the Toronto Club, National Club, and Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton, where memberships cost as much as $20,000.
The data comes from fundraising reports that political parties are required to file with Elections Canada.
Always follow the money if you want to know the real priorities of a politician. It never lies.
Speaking of lies, the Liberal Party’s leader has been lying for a long time. The most recent about support for Israel, and before that promising proportional representation in one of his election campaigns, only to break that promise once he was elected. He changed his mind. I can’t even stand to listen to him speak, so there’s no way I could bring myself to vote for him.
When it comes to third parties, there isn’t an obvious choice. And a lot of the ridings, including mine, have been gerrymandered, rejigged, to the point where I can’t even figure out who the most likely party would be to get in. But I’ll probably vote for the best candidate of one of the remaining parties.
I hope the people demonstrating for Palestine will not only vote, but will also encourage others to vote for truly progressive candidates. I believe this will also increase our chances of peace in the Middle East. American third party candidate, Jill Stein, was arrested at a demonstration against Israel’s genocide of Palestine.
We can’t afford a shift to the right.
Yes, we’re angry about our ever decreasing standards of living and we have every right to be. But we can’t allow ourselves to be manipulated by people who sound like they’re on our side when they really aren’t. We’re so close to sliding into fascism, and that is the last thing we need right now.
There’s something else we should be aware of, and that’s the fact that the west is losing its power and influence. The global majority, who are well aware of the dirty tricks our western governments have played — the lies that justify wars, the unfair sanctions, the coups they’ve backed, etc. — and they’re getting organized around BRICS.
We need to figure out how to land gently as the wealthy and powerful in our countries lose their standing in the world. Right wing governments aren’t going to help us do that.
Voting is just one thing, and there are many other things we can do, but voting determines much of the direction our countries will take.
I hope you’ll not only vote for progressives, but encourage others to as well.
This is a comment someone emailed to me. It rings true to me.
"Austerity was is an invention it was created after the first world war 1919 1920 .There was great upheaval after this war and shock people had had enough, even the right had enough, they all wanted change a different system.
Those in power gathered economists together and created austerity , which paved the way to fascism."
Diana - the problem here is that it’s the neolibs that PASS the austerity budgets. Greece was brought to her knees by Merkel and Macron, not by Orban and Salvini.