WTF!? #politics really went off the road and into the ditch when #Trump got elected back in '16 - then #DougFord in '18, and then the #UCP in '19 and *again* in '23 - it's baffled me ever since how the heck does *that* happen!?
Might be way off base here, but recently this theory came to mind ...
Remember in school when the back of the class was where everyone who didn't want to be there collected? The teacher would be presenting the lesson, and you recall what usually went on back there, right?
Well, it seems that now that the peanut gallery are adults, they've cultivated that annoying habit into an art form.
For some politicians, winning is more important than progress or public service.
And it seems that #Conservative politicians disliked not consistently winning elections. So, about 10 years ago, the populist candidates found that when they parroted the peanut gallery's bitch list, they had a consistent and reliable voter base to work with. They didn't need a platform that competed with anybody else.
Do #Conservative politicians know what they're talking about? Probably not.
Do their supporters? Not a clue.
Do they care? Nope!
But they're all singing off the same song sheet, and although it sounds great to them - the rest of us can tell - they're all tone deaf.
No one can debate with a Conservative - because they have no real facts, just opinion fueled bluster.
Until society collectively stands up for itself with human rights, the environment and social progress as the objective - this 5#!+show will continue.
@Perspective you're not going back far enough, though: politics didn't go off the road when Trump was elected. Rather, Trump was elected after and because of politics having gone off the road.
Trump's election was an effect, not a cause.
We've seen an erosion of faith in many institutions, including the federal government, over the years, and Trump's election was a symptom of that.
You mention people in the back of the room, and that's a pretty good analogy with some tweaks. Many of those people DID want to be there, but they were feeling excluded, felt like they were being sent to the back of the room and ignored by the teacher.
After that they elected Trump as a way of getting attention.
We need to address the underlying issues that created that situation, but we can't do that unless we focus on the problem.
Unfortunately, folks are distracted by the Trump circus and don't look at how it came to be.
@volkris thanks for adding your polishing touches to that post.
Somebody need to get Donnie a ringmaster costume and a whip ;-)
The underlying issues are certainly plentiful, but I'm not sure focusing on the problem will help. A race car driver caught in a spin who is focusing on the approaching wall most certainly hit it. I've been in a similar situation and found that training my eyes on where I *wanted to go* worked like a charm.
We get what we focus on ...
@ned @DavidM_yeg