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Religion and politics
Oct. 22nd, 2019 10:18 amI had an old friend of the family track me down on Facebook recently. She and her husband were close friends with my folks before our family moved to the island, and I only have vague memories of taking the ferry across to visit them on their rural farm (which is now urban high-rises to give you an idea of how many years ago that was). Since my parents had met them at church, I had a hunch this woman was probably going to be an ongoing source of right-wing memes and hollow religious axioms.
She did not disappoint.
One of the things she shared yesterday was a political cartoon depicting a young man trying to shove a fork labelled "Socialism" into an equally large electrical socket. An older, wiser man was standing to one side saying, "We've tried this form of government many times and it has never worked." The young man replies, "They've done it wrong each time." (Paraphrasing slightly because I can't be bothered to go digging back for it.)
It reminded me of this little anecdote from a few years ago:
President Obama at a town hall meeting last week described a letter he received from a Medicare recipient:
"I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, 'I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare.'"
I have seen it enough now that I think that I can start to apply it as a general rule that the people who decry socialism the loudest are the ones who understand it the least and depend on it the most.
Speaking of socialism, we had an election up here yesterday. The incumbent got re-elected, but into a minority position rather than a majority like they'd had.
In my humble opinion, this was probably the best possible outcome from this election. The party that got voted back in tends to campaign on progressive platform, but is often much more conservative in how they govern. The two parties they are probably going to have to cooperate with in order to pass meaningful legislation both tend to be much more progressive in their leanings (though one of them focuses soley on Quebec-centric issues). One of the progressive parties has been pushing hard for our national health program to cover pharmacare as well, and now they might have enough sway to get some movement on this. I am not holding my breath, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. The governing party has expressed tepid interest in the same thing over the years, but never had the initiative to tackle it on their own.
I'd like to see it extend to dental as well, but one thing at a time.
She did not disappoint.
One of the things she shared yesterday was a political cartoon depicting a young man trying to shove a fork labelled "Socialism" into an equally large electrical socket. An older, wiser man was standing to one side saying, "We've tried this form of government many times and it has never worked." The young man replies, "They've done it wrong each time." (Paraphrasing slightly because I can't be bothered to go digging back for it.)
It reminded me of this little anecdote from a few years ago:
President Obama at a town hall meeting last week described a letter he received from a Medicare recipient:
"I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, 'I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare.'"
I have seen it enough now that I think that I can start to apply it as a general rule that the people who decry socialism the loudest are the ones who understand it the least and depend on it the most.
Speaking of socialism, we had an election up here yesterday. The incumbent got re-elected, but into a minority position rather than a majority like they'd had.
In my humble opinion, this was probably the best possible outcome from this election. The party that got voted back in tends to campaign on progressive platform, but is often much more conservative in how they govern. The two parties they are probably going to have to cooperate with in order to pass meaningful legislation both tend to be much more progressive in their leanings (though one of them focuses soley on Quebec-centric issues). One of the progressive parties has been pushing hard for our national health program to cover pharmacare as well, and now they might have enough sway to get some movement on this. I am not holding my breath, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. The governing party has expressed tepid interest in the same thing over the years, but never had the initiative to tackle it on their own.
I'd like to see it extend to dental as well, but one thing at a time.
