Left vs. Right and Polarisation

Over the last several years I have been following what happens in the US quite a bit, but not to divert my attentions from what goes on in my home country but to gain an outsiders perspective by looking for parallels, and there are a lot! And I try to find answers to local questions. Ever since Trump got elected the Democrats having been fighting him tooth and nail trying to void his election. The bureaucracy that is Washington (the "swamp") is trying its best to assist the Democrats in doing that. The irony here is that they are exercising their "democratic rights". The tool they wish to use is "impeachment" for "Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanours". This same tool has been tried during my life time also against Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton and was successful against Clinton. In the history of the US there are only two Presidents that have been found guilty by Congress of the charge: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. And in both cases they were acquitted.

Why do I bring this up? Because the media have a grand old time, as does the party promoting it, the Democrats. Yet other than making the President that is targeted less effective it does nothing and proves nothing! On top of it neither party are populated with saints. For example the Democrats accused Trump of "colluding" with Russia with no supporting evidence having been found after almost a year and a half of investigation yet there is ample evidence that Hillary Clinton had "colluded" with the Russians when she was Secretary of State. So it is okay if one of your own does something that is not considered moral or ethical but if that charge can be applied against your political opponent then it has value? I don't get it.

Personally I find a lot of the charges that were levelled against Nixon, Clinton and Trump frivolous and far from being "high crimes". Clinton's infidelities while in office should have resulted in him being thrown out of office since anyone else who had been accused by so many and with so much supporting evidence, would have been definitely jailed! The real problem is that this is a classic example of a feud whereby the reason for continuing this nonsense is "well, he did it too" and "an eye for an eye". Revenge is petty at best. As I have stated before I abhor hypocrisy and in all 3 cases democracy has been bludgeoned badly by blatant hypocrisy. Elections are held with which to choose who will lead the electorate for a finite term and at the end of that term the electorate then have the opportunity to replace them with someone else. Yet too often now, and typically it is the left of centre, one group cannot accept the results nor wait until the next election and thus fight tooth and nail to get their way right now, to hell with everyone else.

Are we in Canada better off, the same, or worse? One obvious difference is there is no legislation that specifically covers the Prime Minister. But they are subject, or at least we are lead to believe, to the same laws and penalties as the rest of us. Other than that there certainly are similarities in that one party is more prone to inciting treason (disloyalty or treachery to one's country); in the US it is the Democrats and in recent years in Canada it is the Liberals and specifically our current Prime Minister.

The crux of the problem is the current state of Main Stream Media (MSM), primarily television and print media. They show a very strong left wing bias such that we do not get very little honest reporting. And that is a serious problem for us in Canada and for all other democracies; the MSM are supposed to be our cultural conscience and they are failing miserably!  How often in the past have we seen someone trying to deal with a moral or ethical issue and on one shoulder is a small devil and on the other a small angel? In order to make the best decision one needs to explore both sides of any issue and the MSM are supposed to be those two views and why a "free press" is crucial for we the people to make a well informed decision.

To illustrate what I mean remember the ruckus over Senator Mike Duffy. What he did with his expense account and what the Prime Ministers chief of staff, Nigel Wright, did to pay the disputed amount back resulted in a uproar across the country, aided and abetted hugely by the MSM, that continued, and had a major impact on the last Federal election here. Yet Trudeau does even worse and is convicted on 4 separate counts of conflict of interest and no charges from the RCMP, hardly a word from the opposition parties and barely a peep said by the same media! Another example over the previous decade was that the Conservatives "had a hidden agenda". I'm sorry but I do not recall a Carbon Tax being part of the Liberal platform during that same election. Yet soon after taking power Trudeau announced that a Carbon Tax was going to be implemented. Where was the media outrage over the fact it was a hidden agenda item? Has there even been a discussion on the pro's and con's? I have seen a few in favour by members of the MSM but not against as that would go against their bias.

But I am digressing from my main thesis; polarisation. The reason, as I see it, that we see so much polarisation both here and south of the border is due to a lack of dialogue between opposing voices. Rather than debating we see the left and the complicit MSM  shouting ill founded accusations with no solid evidence in support. Or taking a very important moral and ethical issue and twisting it and turning it against whoever they do not like. The worst tool used, and I am becoming far more aware of its prevalence, is "projection"; "the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people or to objects; especially : the externalization of blame, guilt, or responsibility as a defense against anxiety".

Far too often the liberal dominated media project the traits of the left onto the right. As I have previously written it is what is said of "ANTIFA", a group Fascist thugs, and accusing their victims of being the "Fascists".  The MSM have failed us and are blind to their failing; while readership drops they pander more and more to the left. They are oblivious to the fact that they keep alienating a significant proportion of their potential audience yet cannot see that the demographic they are reaching out to is over represented by their own competitors. Why would a Toronto Star subscriber also subscribe to the National Post which pretty much mimics what is published by the former? Our conscience has abandoned us. Will I live long enough to see it revive itself? I just don't know but I sure hope it does happen and the sooner the better!