How Quickly Politics of Fear Could Transform Canada

[Oscar]

How Quickly Politics of Fear Could Transform Canada

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/02/16/Ca ... s-of-Fear/ ]

Is Harper pushing us towards a new McCarthyism?

By Rafe Mair, February 16, 2015 TheTyee.ca

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, unless thwarted by a surge of surprising voter intelligence, has found the winning formula. Leading his coven of three-piece-suit and pearl necklace know-nothings, he will rally the electorate in a rout of the mortally dangerous non-Christian hordes within and without our borders, saving God from Allah and leaving Trudeau and Mulcair gasping for air, something they excel at.

As Harper whips up fear of a Muslim enemy he will make it simple to allow hate to spread without appearing to do so. In fact Harper need only mumble "not all people... many are fine, innocent... blah, blah, blah" and play the civil libertarian role.

It's classic George W. Bush, a fellow intellectual of the right, who parlayed the hateful Saddam Hussein and those who looked like him into two election victories from which the world will likely never recover.

This point, however, is critical. The condition that must be present to make it all work -- a clear, comprehensible threat to our society -- is in fact present. I accept that radical Islamist jihadism is dedicated to destroy its enemies, its followers will cheerfully die for their cause, and it must be defeated. This threat is for real and not a CIA plot as the U.S.-hating left would have us believe.

But, as the famous Yankee ballplayer Yogi Berra said, "It's déjà vu all over again." We've been there before, not long ago, and there are lessons to be learned about how a threat from without can be used by politicians to cow and control their own populace.

MORE:

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/02/16/Ca ... s-of-Fear/ ]

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( * Rafe Mair, born on December 31, 1931, is a lawyer, political commentator and former radio personality and politician in British Columbia, Canada. He writes a column for The Tyee every second Monday. )

Rafe Mair writes a column for The Tyee every second Monday.
Read his previous columns here: [ http://thetyee.ca/Bios/Rafe__Mair/ ].
He is also a founding contributor to The Common Sense Canadian: [ http://commonsensecanadian.ca/ ].

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Postscript: Readers may be interested in an oldie from the '30s, It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis, dealing with Naziism and a small American town. **

LEWIS: It Can't Happen Here

[ http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1137 ... appen_Here ]

by Sinclair Lewis, Michael Meyer (Introduction)

The only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith, It Can't Happen Here is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a President who becomes a dictator to save the nation from welfare cheats, rampant promiscuity, crime, and a liberal press. Now finally back in print, It Can't Happen Here remains uniquely important, a shockingly prescient novel that's as fresh and contemporary as today's news.
"Written at white heat." — Chicago Tribune
"A message to thinking Americans." — Springfield Republican
"Not only [Lewis's] most important book but one of the most important books ever produced in this country." — The New Yorker (less)