Poisonous partisanship at the ballot box

All my life I have clung to the apparent misconception of history as the story of human advancement. I believed that little by little, the ills that plague us would be conquered by scientific discoveries, educational enlightenment, and a growing awareness of our shared humanness.

I am now sadly coming to the realization that I may have been wrong. While progress is made in so many fields, giving us ever greater access to more and more consumables, changing the colour, flavour, and the pace of the world around us, and adding years to our lives, very little progress is made in the essential qualities that make us social beings. History, rather than being a story of human advancement, seems to be a story of human tragedy. The immutable stupidity of human behaviour now endangers our entire planet and all living things in it.

There is one outstanding and obvious example of how, in spite of their large brains, people often choose to act against their own interests and reject the promise of human progress. This example is, of course, the election in the U.S. of Donald Trump as President. As one American writer said in the Globe this past week, “With Mr. Trump’s election we’ve installed a constant reminder of the dark underbelly of American culture, and it’s unlikely he’ll let us forget … His actions are regularly misogynistic, racist, ignorant and authoritarian.” No need to even mention his vindictive and childish tweets every morning. Every breath he takes, every action, every thought he utters is absolute proof that he is the least capable person to fulfill his promise to ‘Make America Great Again.’ Exactly the opposite.

Then there is the troubling moral blindness afflicting millions of voters in Alabama these days. A 35year-old lawyer is said to have cruised the local malls looking for 14-year-old girlfriends. This man, now 70, is leading in the race for a Senate seat in December. And people know about his past. They also know about his present — a judge twice removed from his office for actions unbecoming a judge, a man who beats up people with the Old Testament, unapologetically refusing to base his judgments on American law, referencing instead the Bible and the Ten Commandments. Even his Republican colleagues in the Senate don’t want him. The people, however, will likely send him to Washington. They seem to feel that an alleged child-molesting, lying, bigoted, Biblethumping Republican windbag is preferable to a squeaky clean, intelligent, highly experienced Democrat. This is mob insanity and poisonous partisanship.

Many people in America, seeing these examples of voters’ moral indifference, are beginning to warn against the dangers of placing party allegiance over doing what’s right for the country. My party, right or wrong, is a form of tribalism that mocks the very possibility of informed debate and of democracy itself.

And we here in Alberta are just as vulnerable to the pitfall of party allegiance as any constituency in America. In our recent byelection, the people could have had an MP on the government side of the house. Instead they chose a mere place-holder, a voice in the wilderness. This was clearly a case of party allegiance trumping thoughtful deliberation and meaningful pragmatism. Now I’m beginning to think about the next Alberta election in 2019, likely a contest between Rachel Notley’s NDP government and Jason Kenney’s United Conservatives. Any reasonable analysis should indicate a victory for Notley — unless Albertans remain mired in blind partisanship. Recent reports show that 70,000 jobs have been added to the private sector this year, that the projected deficit has been reduced by more than $200 million, that the economy of Alberta leads all other provinces with a projected growth of over 4%. As well, Notley, the perfect pragmatist, is an unapologetic promoter of pipelines. She is able to credibly do this only because of her staunch defence of the environment.

Consider that Notley’s government began its tenure under the worst possible conditions. Her victory was in part a protest against the outrageous entitlement and ineptitude of the former PCs who mismanaged the economy, squandered the reserve funds, and failed to diversify. They threatened austerity measures meant to punish the poor, the middle class, and the public sector. Notley chose a different path and the results are now showing. She was given a standing ovation from Alberta’s business leaders last week.

What will Jason Kenney bring to this contest? One of Stephen Harper’s attack dogs, he excelled in meanmouthing and prevaricating, and generally serving Harper’s desire to eradicate the liberal democratic traditions of this nation. Any search of Kenney’s past positions uncovers a litany of double-speak and misdirection. He is ideologically narrow (arch conservative) and politically slippery). Fittingly, he leads a new party bereft of party platforms and vision, guided only by the narrow flame of his ideology. The only thing we can say for sure is that Jason Kenney, shapeless, visionless, and ideologically blinkered, is no Rachel Notley. He’s no Ralph Klein either.

Peter Mueller is a long-time resident of Medicine Hat who, in spite of all the evidence, continues to believe we can build a better world.