A Liblogger named Susan has put up a post illuminating a painful, but necessary, situation: the shattering of illusions. I think it’s important to take a closer look at what she’s saying here.

I feel like I am being dragged kicking and screaming to a conclusion it is no longer possible to avoid: the Liberal Big Tent is collapsing. The elements that Chretien held together are separating off – the keep Quebec happy at all costs group, the hawks, the anti-gays, the law and orders, the right of center but don’t want to be Conservatives, the decentralists – they are all getting antsy, muttering, trying to get their way, trying to get Ignatieff to help them get their way, nattering to the press, shoving people out, it’s a mess.

One of Susan’s commenters, a fellow named Ron, pointed out that it was only the actual possession of power and largess that kept all the groups together. But that’s another post, and not the point I want to make.

No, the important part is the “kicking and screaming” bit. What’s actually happening is that events — the byelection losses, the resignation of candidates, the throne speech buildup, and the appointment of a Liberal to a Conservative project — is stripping away the illusions from this blogger. It is painful, because she realizes that not even the Tories can be blamed for this series of raw exposures on how the federal Liberal Party works today. No, that accountability lies with her fellow Liberals, both the ones she admires and the ones she considers rivals.

And it’s only one step further to the realization that she herself also has some responsibility for the party’s current woes. (This is a theme I’ve alluded to earlier.)

Dion’s problem is not that he doesn’t represent what Canadians want, it’s that he doesn’t represent what certain elements in the Liberal party want. When everyone spoke of renewal, I guess they didn’t realize how hard core some of the old guard are and how they would put getting their way ahead of keeping the party strong. It’s very foolish, they should have just left the party and gone over to Harper, because that’s where they would be happier.

I’m sure if she thinks about it, Susan will realize how illogical her sentiment is. All it means is that she wants all the Liberal Party’s internal “rivals” — whom she thinks is destroying the Liberal Party — on the same side (i.e. Harper’s). That way she can dismiss all her rivalry as one big lump, not to be given more thought. Life, of course, is never that simple.

Because, in the minds of most Liberals, “getting their way” and “keeping the party strong” are one and the same thing. Remember that we are talking about politicians here, and politics is about finding the best solutions for things, which means advocating (and sometimes arguing, with the occasional rhetorical fistfight) alternatives to solving the same problem. Politics, is, in essence, what this Liberal infighting is all about.

I think she’ll also realize that her “rivals” would never even think of joining the Tories. First, there’s no guarantee that Harper would even accept what they have to offer (Wajid Khan and David Emerson weren’t old-time Liberals); second, they’d have a fight on their hands convincing the incumbent members they have something to offer; and finally, they probably have more in common with Susan in their dislike of Harper in particular and Tory viewpoints in general. In short, they would identify more with Susan than they would with the Tories.

Then new people would join the Liberals and keep alive what the Liberals have always stood for: a strong united Canada, a strong central government that respects the provinces and works with them as a group, social justice, the Charter, peacekeeping not war making, genuine respect for women and minorities, medicare for all, daycare for all, government subsidized research and innovation, support for the arts, respect for culture, strong ties with Europe, caution in dealings with the US, and a deft hand at economic stability and innovation – among many other values and approaches.

Here, unfortunately, is the core of Susan’s problem. The biggest problem with her “list of Liberal values” is that it’s all sloganeering: they all sound grand and appealing, but if you examine them closely you’ll realize that their actual meaning is so ambiguous as to be worthless, as a guiding philosophy. It also has the disadvantage of not being particularly distinguishable from other parties such as the NDP. Hence, it’s not compelling enough to really attract new members.

And this “platform” is a symptom of something that has always been the biggest problem with the modern-day Liberal Party of Canada: they prefer the appearance of being in charge to the reality of actually governing. It’s something that’s coloured their infighting, as well: saying that everyone is united and actually getting along are two completely different things.

Dion needs more new people, strong-minded people who can look ahead and who can communicate to Canadians over the head of the media the way Chretien used to and the way Rae did yesterday. There’s hope but it’s going to be tough.

While it’s true that Dion needs people like that, he needs much more: he needs to actually become one of those communicators if he wants to be what Chretien eventually became. That’s not likely to happen.

And while it may be nice to think that there’s still hope, so long as that hope exists the Liberals will never get round to addressing the actual rebuilding of infrastruction and policy that they need to convince Canadians that they’ve learned from the missteps of Chretien and Martin. That’s going to take a complete shattering of hope, something on the level of a Harper majority government.

Yes, Susan is going to be in for more than a world of hurt. But it’s like natural childbirth: you have to endure a lot of pain in order for new life to emerge.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 09:19 and is filed under Blogging, Fisking Exercises, Libranos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.