Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Kelly McParland: NDP’s crusaders need some victims to rescue

It would be interesting to know how Jack Layton imagines the New Democratic Party when he’s lounging around Stornoway admiring what a lifetime on the public payroll has brought him.

The rhetoric was flying fast and free on the weekend, as the NDP leader and like-minded associates sought to nudge party members into recognizing that Canada has changed since 1961, when the party really was new. The economy has been altered fundamentally, and the workplace along with it. Canadians don’t earn money in 2011 the same way they did 50 years ago. “Hard-working Canadians” today aren’t the same people they were then.

Layton wanted to stop identifying the party as socialist in nature, recognizing that it sends voters scurrying in the opposite direction. It was a commendable idea, but ran up against the party’s Woodstock faction. If they want to keep pretending The Who is going to turn up in a field in upstate New York and belt out ‘My Generation’ one more time, no one’s going to persuade them otherwise.  So Layton will be forced to bide his time before trying to nudge them forward again.

Full Text
Source: National Post 

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