A tale of two Conservative parties
Canada’s Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Photo: Embassy of Canada (U.S), Creative Commons, some rights reserved
Last week was a study in contrasts for North America’s two powerful right-tilting parties.
The irony is that the success stories are all on the side of the border where one would least expect to find them.
In Washington, the Republican Party is in full circular-firing-squad mode, with far-right fundamentalists demanding government shutdowns, debt defaults, and eagerly launching internal purges to root out and destroy moderates within their ranks.
The GOP hasn’t won a presidential election since 2004 and hasn’t controlled the US Senate since 2007. The party has been forced to lean on hardball electoral tactics — gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts — just to maintain control of the US House.
Speaking last week, during the bitter depths of the messy Republican retreat on Obamacare, former Florida governor Jeb Bush made the startling suggestion that his party might want to develop an actual agenda for governing the country.
“We just can’t be against what’s in front of Washington, D.C,” Bush pointed out, in an interview with MSNBC. He, like others in his party, have lamented the wholesale collapse of the GOP’s popularity among Hispanics, the young, and women.
The party of No has begun to look like the party of No Future.
In Ottawa, meanwhile, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has led his nation since 2006. His party has racked up so many center-right legislative victories, that it’s left many observers wondering if there’s much left of his original agenda worth doing.
Canada is arguably the most stable, prosperous and (gasp) well-managed western democracy, with a rapidly shrinking national deficit, lower corporate taxes, and a booming energy sector. The Great Recession that hobbled America barely registered north of the border.
Mr. Harper has also just inked a major new trade agreement with Europe that could push Canada ahead of the US in the global free-trade movement.
All this has been accomplished while boosting the Conservative Party’s electoral support, including strong growth among the nation’s immigrants and moderate suburban voters.
Along the way, Mr. Harper has angered and alienated some of his more hard-core supporters. Social conservatives, hard-line free-marketeers, and anti-environment factions want a tea-party like revolution in Canada.
Instead, the Conservative Party has chosen to build an actual governing movement. This from the Globe and Mail.
Mr. Harper has tempered his firebrand past in the interests of putting together the broadest possible coalition of conservative supporters, from New Brunswick Red Tories to 905 Sikhs to Prairie farmers.
That means he can only move the dial a bit to the right each time; sometimes he even has to dial it back. It also means, if breaches are not to be publicly exposed, imposing a smothering discipline on the caucus and the party machinery.
Mr. Harper has begun to face some of the discontents and challenges of a party that has been, for a very long time, comfortably in power. There are signs of drift and increased in-fighting.
But those are problems his counterparts in the US — Mitt Romney, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell — would very much like to experience.
The irony is that many American conservatives still view Canada with horror. They point to its government-run healthcare programs and lingering reputation as a more liberal society as the very future they are fighting to avoid.
The truth, meanwhile, is that Canadian conservatives probably have a great deal to teach their counterparts, not just in Washington but also in places like Texas and Georgia and Kansas.
Also don’t forget that in 2012, that even though the GOP won the House, due to gerrymandering, Democratic House candidates actually received more votes. This may not matter in concrete terms – Reps still have the majority in that chamber – that the GOP lost the overall popular vote in the House, Senate AND presidential elections after two years of Tea Party strength highlights the minority nature of their agenda. The more influence the Tea Party has within the GOP, the less relevant the Republicans will be as a national party.
A couple of points.
First, the Republican party is not a right-tilting party, at least not the national party. Rather, it is a party of right-wing extremists whose members would rather see the economy crash and burn rather than raise the debt ceiling. Every single Congressional Republican has voted to repeal Obamacare and replace it with nothing. They really are fine with the status quo of people without health insurance dying.
The Canadian Conservatives, by contrast have accepted both single payer health care and same sex marriage. Can you name, ANY Republican who has done the same?
And, the Canadian Conservatives stay in power largely because the Canadian left is divided between the Liberals, the New Democrats, the Greens, and, arguably, Bloc Quebecois (Quebec is widely viewed as the most left wing province). There is no tea party style political party in Canada.
Wait a minute. Isn’t Ted Cruz Canadian?
Only on his parents’ side.
Sounds like it’s time to load up the Subarus and head north.
“Jeb Bush made the startling suggestion that his party might want to develop an actual agenda for governing the country.”
Rather partisan comment Brian. You find it startling that a republican would suggest an actual agenda?
On budgetary items the GOP have consistently laid out a budget as part of their agenda. The majority simply don’t like it.
I think once the democrats are prepared to address entitlement reform a bipartisan solution to some of the big issues may happen. The republicans have shown that they are willing to raise taxes.
“The Canadian Conservatives, by contrast have accepted both single payer health care and same sex marriage. Can you name, ANY Republican who has done the same?”
Why does this matter? You can’t name very many democrats that would accept both of these things either. In fact most democrats are quite adamant that the US should not have a single payer health care system. Or do you think all this tea party nonsense about how the ACA is a secret step towards single payer is true?
Great job of tiptoeing through the tulips while attempting to compare the US GOP and their subset the billionaire orchestrated “tea party affiliates” to the Canadian political system. The current “right-tilting” tea party members of the GOP who believe that shutting down the US Government and perhaps crashing the world economic system, now rather than later, was their ticket to majority rule in both houses of Congress and the White House likely are an outgrowth of the tax day protests initiated in the mid 90’s when conservative activists mailed tea bags to legislators in acts of protest. However; in early 2009 immediately after the current Black POTUS Obama had taken office the deep pocketed billionaires and multimillionaires hit the ground running with their hyped up version of the “Tea Party” in it’s current incarnation and continue to do so.
Rallying the the southern Republican block (once the southern Democratic block, until LBJ desegregated the South in the mid 60’s) around the Tea party was child’s play through the use of subtle and not so subtle racial overtones in their anti POTUS Obama rhetoric. Senators and Representatives such as Kentucky’s Senator McConnell and Ohio’s Representative Boehner attempted to block every bill that the White House attempted to get through Congress and damn near succeeded. As “scratchy” says “the Republican party is not a right-tilting party, it is a party of right-wing extremists” to which I will add covertly and overtly “racist” right wing extremists funded by the obscenely wealthy, so as to ensure that they “exclusively” remain obscenely wealthy and to hell with allowing the little people to have anything except the “TAB” for any and all economic consequences brought about by acts of “god” such as: war, earthquakes, extreme weather, ., ., . and of course keeping the Obscenely Wealthy, obscenely wealthy.
Paul – “The republicans have shown that they are willing to raise taxes.” not factually correct.
and there are lots on his forum who would take single payer and same sex mariage
Hi Paul –
You misunderstood me. I didn’t find it startling that Jeb Bush would suggest that the GOP have an agenda. I found it startling that even he, one of the top Republicans in the US, thinks his party currently lacks one.
–Brian, NCPR
“Paul – “The republicans have shown that they are willing to raise taxes.” not factually correct.”
Sure it is. They already did it last year when the refused to extend the bush era tax cuts. My taxes went up didn’t yours?
Brian, that makes sense. Sorry I did read that wrong. Thanks for the reply.
“and there are lots on his forum who would take single payer and same sex mariage”
I don’t think there is much evidence for this? Heck even he may have been forced politically into changing his stance on same sex marriage. He seemed pretty adamantly opposed to the idea until the tide started to turn. I am glad he changed his mind. Opposition to that is silly.
“Canada is arguably the most stable, prosperous and (gasp) well-managed western democracy, with a rapidly shrinking national deficit, lower corporate taxes, and a booming energy sector. The Great Recession that hobbled America barely registered north of the border.”
Are we talking about countries or a corporations?
Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.
That is what a country is a not-for-profit corporation. We have a corporate constitution and everything!
Paul, I’ll accept your assertion that the country is a public corporation if you’ll accept that it should not be the target of a hostile takeover by private corporations.
“You find it startling that a republican would suggest an actual agenda?”
Absolutely. It’s certainly out of character with the currents in the party today.
Perfect example being the Congressmen who said that the GOP had to get something out of the shutdown/debt ceiling standoff, but he had no idea what that might be. In other words, hold the country hostage merely for its own sake.
It is a different worldview.
The best thing that could happen in my opinion is that Ted Cruz becomes the Republican nominee for the President in 2016. The reason is that we need some sort of a national referendum that is understandable. I think these things have to work themselves out.
Many Americans have no idea how well Canada is doing and I think would be shocked. The problem is our own ignorance and parochialism really hurts us.
On NPR this morning they had a guy on TPR who was talking about Cruz and the point was made he is doing everything you should do to advance a career in media and entertainment in general, but doing just the opposite of what you would do to actually govern for your state. How many Canadian conservatives want a talk show or a reality tv show? That is the career path our so called tea party people seem to seek.
Jim, assertion granted!!
I also think it is a mistake to believe that the tea party movement in the US is a total creation of very wealthy people buying add space and funding PACS etc. There is a real cultural divide, many people do not vote with their pocket books in fact many act in seemingly opposite interests of their pocket books the tea party in many respects really is a grass roots movement. It is actually very fascinating.
These home districts are not all very wealthy districts.
In the US there is a huge disconnect between what the government actually is doing in the day to day lives of people and what people have come to believe the government is doing. That is how you can get a bunch of people out there who are on VA pensions, medicare, social security, or are benefiting from those programs by billing them or actually working for government subcontractors, who claim they hate the government.
There are a few significant things left out of this piece. First of all, voter suppression tactics were used by the Conservative Party in the 2011 election. Robocalls were made to voters homes, directing them to vote at the wrong place. Also, there was a mysterious, and still unknown conservative staffer known only as Pierre Poutine who is also said to have made calls from a cell phone, registered to the fake address of 123 Separatist Street in Joliette, Quebec. More recently, three conservative senators here have caused a major scandal for their illegal expense claims and falsely claiming their principal residences. One of these three is also up on charges for sexual assault. The Conservative government also has significant contempt for the press. News conferences are tightly scripted, and reporters now have to put their names on a list ahead of time and are limited to how many questions they may ask and what the topic of them is. When I was working as a reporter a few years ago, an assistant to the then Minister of Health was furious when I asked the Minister questions about cancer treatment! The time and location of cabinet meetings is no longer publicised either. Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers are also required to have many of their news releases and comments pre-approved by the Prime Minister’s Office ahead of time.
Again with the race card, Ken Hall? Is there no limit to the demonization of the Republican Party? Obviously not, as we’ve been accused of racism, voting for people to die and wanting to crash the economy. Think about this nonsense for a minute: if Republicans are all so obscenely wealthy, wouldn’t crashing the economy hurt them? Liberals spout this nonsense without even thinking if it makes sense.
Brian MOFYC, there is no “overall popular vote in the House.” Are you counting on the uninformed to actually believe this fiction? If you think the Republicans are responsible for all gerrymandering, work on changing the rules but don’t count on the Democrats to support it. Both sides are guilty and there’s nothing new there.
“Paul, I’ll accept your assertion that the country is a public corporation if you’ll accept that it should not be the target of a hostile takeover by private corporations.”
Jim, BTW is it?
Sure many environmental organization and unions (all privater corporations) are constantly trying to do this and interfere with other private corporations business but it has always been like this.
The Original Larry asks: “Is there no limit to the demonization of the Republican Party?”
OL check out this video by a Republican Judge from San Antonio, Texas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtPdKjkcZCU&feature=youtu.be
OK, Ken Hall, you read this:
http://nationalreview.com/article/354892/obamas-america-democrats-turning-republican-katrina-trinko#!
It happens all the time….big deal.
Knuck, I caught one of mine: privater should be private. Apparently not a misspelling but a word I have never seen!
“Paul, I’ll accept your assertion that the country is a public corporation if you’ll accept that it should not be the target of a hostile takeover by private corporations.”
Paul asks, Jim, BTW is it?
Arguably yes, the federal government is the target of a hostile takeover via all the members of congress and other officials that have been “bought” or are embedded to represent private corporate interests.
others here have already touched on this, but i really think this is completely backwards:
democrats — certainly not all of them, but enough of them — are dying to do entitlement “reform.” obama would love to get a “grand bargain.” the problem is that the buy-in for that is more revenue, and republicans won’t countenance an increase of a single nickel. the only reason republicans “supported” tax increases in the fiscal cliff deal is because taxes were going up anyway. in fact republicans got them to go up less.
Paul, I believe a privater is a pirate who ran into an even bigger crook named Nron. After stealing the extra E he became known as Enron, Scourge of California.
Larry, you’re kinda missing the hate and bigotry part. He says he’s leaving the GOP because
You’re giving a false equivalence.
And you’re trying to give the impression that hate and bigotry is the official platform of the Republican party when, in fact, his actions are mainly a response to the words and candidacy of one individual and an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of the front-runner in the gubernatorial race. What about all the hate and bigotry that was the official platform of the Democrat partry, especially in the south? Things change, evolve and even get better over time, don’t they?
“What about all the hate and bigotry that was the official platform of the Democrat partry, especially in the south?”
All that hate and bigotry was absorbed into today’s GOP.
“Things change, evolve and even get better over time, don’t they?”
Hard to see much evidence of that in today’s GOP, Larry.
“All that hate and bigotry was absorbed into today’s GOP.”
Walker, even you must think this is a ridiculous comment?
There certainly are fringe elements infecting some of these movements.
I think immigration reform will be instructive, how that debate plays out within the Party. Certainly if you want better border security it does not mean you are a racist, however some of the things we saw in the last debate did bring out racist or really very ignorant elements of our population who did attach themselves to some of the tea party guys.
Of course when you meet with a group outside the white house, and one idiot stands up there with a confederate flag and that one guy gets on the news, one would think you would as an elected official make it very clear that you feel that the confederate flag is a racist symbol and you want nothing to do with it, but I didn’t hear that from anyone there.
Conservatives have to go through some of this to purge ourselves of these types of people though so in some ways this is good, it is better than burying it or pretending they don’t exist as we have done in the past as we accepted their votes.
” The irony is that many American conservatives still view Canada with horror. They point to its government-run healthcare programs and lingering reputation as a more liberal society as the very future they are fighting to avoid”
This is exactly what I have seen. The people who I know who would indeed be classified with the tea party or very conservative have a long held belief that Canada is an economic basket case, almost as basic tenant. Many are simply ignorant but some are not, but they all feel that they don’t want to be like Canada as far as economics goes. So when you have that belief a-prior you really miss out on the facts and on the ability to learn something.
“Walker, even you must think this is a ridiculous comment?”
Paul, I was referring specifically to the hate and bigotry Larry says (not inaccurately) was the official platform of the Democratic party in the South prior to the sixties. It was successfully taken over by the GOP in what is generally referred to as the Southern Strategy: “a Republican Party strategy of gaining political support for certain candidates in the Southern United States by appealing to racism against African Americans” Wikipedia: Southern Strategy.
Larry, In the article you referenced, did you perchance notice/recognize the preponderance of contention that the predominantly “white/southern” Democrats switching parties had with POTUS Obama rather than contention with the democratic platform? Whereas; the Texas Judge was referring to the Republican platform as his decision driver not a particular Senator, Representative or POTUS.
What do you imagine is the problem the “white/southern” Democrats have with POTUS Obama? Could it be the same problem a considerable number of North Country residents have as well?
How convenient it must be to take all the dark aspects of a party’s history and explain them away by saying “that was in the past and all the bad guys have now joined the Republicans.” Let’s not forget that in our own lifetimes the Democrat party was the party of segregation and racial intolerance and other unsavory philosophies. You’re now damning the Republicans before they even get a chance to do what the Democrats so cleverly did. Nothing the Republicans do now equals the repression practiced by Democrats as recently as the 1970s.
Ken, Curious. Why do you keep prefacing Obama with POTUS. We all know he is the president. Why do you feel that you need to use both?
Walker, but you said ‘today’s” GOP in your comment?
“Walker, but you said ‘today’s” GOP in your comment?”
I think it’s fair to say that today’s solidly Republican south is a direct result of the Southern Strategey of the 60s/70s.
I honestly don’t know a lot about racism in today’s south, though I would be surprised to hear anyone say that it was a non-factor today. Certainly stories of Republican attempts at suppressing the African-American vote in the south and elsewhere are hard to miss.
“I honestly don’t know a lot about racism in today’s south”
You might not know a lot about racism, but you have no problem accusing Republicans of practicing it. Nice.
What is it about liberals that compels them to trash and demonize anyone who disagrees with them? Seem like there’s no chance anymore of agreeing to disagree and recognizing that the opposition are sincere, well-intentioned folks. Is it any wonder that we have the situation we have in Washington?
what is it about conservatives that compels them to do exactly the same thing, if not worse?
Yeah, so if you don’t have a reasonable answer or don’t wish to appear reasonable, you try to be a smart-ass instead by turning the question around. See what I mean? It’s like dealing with children, and badly behaved children at that.
larry, you’re constantly proclaiming from on high about this or that awful thing democrats/liberals/… do. but time and again, it’s about something your “side” is just as bad at. yet somehow that half of it hardly ever registers with you. and to some extent, hey, so what? partisans are always easier on their own side. it’s life. it would be great if you could be a little more honest about it. are you really any less childish than anyone else here?
to wit, larry writes above in this very thread:
i mean, right, so it’s liberals who are “trash[ing] and demoniz[ing] anyone who disagrees with them”?
Studies show that lab rats that comment on internet blogs are not as smart as the lab rats that don’t! Of course you never know what will happen until you try the experiments in human subjects?
Don’t worry reality still falls somewhere in the middle. Both right wind and left wing partisans all think they are moderates. They are both wrong and you will never convince them of that fact.
Categorizing a patently absurd statement as “nonsense” isn’t demonizing or trashing anyone. Most people understand the difference.