Liberalism - Sidebar 1

James Moore and Tony Clement are two Conservative cabinet ministers who received a fair bit of attention last week for their effective use of Twitter to keep in touch with their followers.  It’s true; through that medium they’ve been able to communicate where they are at any particular moment of the day, or, briefly, how they feel on a certain subject.  More power to them.  I think it’s great.I’ve never been able to communicate that way.  Being more philosophical in nature and outlook, putting my thoughts down in 140 characters or less is an impossibility.And so I’ve blogged for two years, only to discover that hardly any MPs use a blog and its more expanded venue to get their points across.  When I asked a good number of my colleagues why they opted for Facebook or Twitter, the reply was always the same: when you endeavour to be honest, the media will inevitably take things out of context and your words are brought up at a later date in ways designed to embarrass.Truthfully, this hasn’t been my experience – until I started this series on liberalism, and I suddenly understood what they meant.  I had no sooner published the first two posts, when the right-leaning media jumped all over it.  I was attempting to be frank and honest about what the Liberals needed to do as a party to recapture the public imagination, but my reasonings were immediately taken out of context, with one writer exulting that I had finally “woken up.”I knew it would come and when it did I took a kind of laissez-faire attitude towards it.  For the most part, my musings have been bypassed, and that’s just fine with me.  But there’s a lesson in it for all of us.  Members of Parliament won’t have these kinds of discussions in public because the price is just too high.  My party has said nothing to me about the posts.  No one in the leader’s office has offered advice or criticisms.  One of my colleagues grew upset about the way one newspaper interpreted the blog and he just wished I’d back off.  But then there were numerous colleagues from all parties, including the governing party, encouraging me to press on in my attempts to find a new way of doing politics in this country.And then there are the hit men.  I call it the “Nola factor.”  Nola began posting comments to my blog starting over a year ago that were both extreme and demeaning.  When I attempted to contact Nola, I discovered he/she used a false email address - fake name, fake contact info.  In a fashion that has become all too familiar, individuals and groups like Nola have sought to undermine the kind of free and open speech that permits honesty without recrimination, insight without hatred.  And hatred is what it is.  Nola has used the most repulsive kind of language imaginable.  These are the worst kind of voices being aired in a time of national transition.  They are neither open nor humble.  They just attempt to ruin the public discourse, that’s all.I don’t hear from Nola anymore because he/she was spammed.  In a list presented to me by a former Conservative of organized bloggers who seek to use the Internet to demean anyone who doesn’t share their point of view – especially Liberals – there was Nola, right near the top.  Wordpress.com makes it easy to place the Nolas into a spam category, claiming that such an option is a means for them to maintain the innocence of blogging.I’m not so sure.  The vast majority of bloggers and commentators, despite their political views, handle their work responsibly and with a certain modicum of respect.  But there are just so many Nolas.  In attempts by ciizens and their representatives alike to sincerely converse, it is such individuals that willingly and forcefully attempt to ruin the public space.So, it many ways it would have been much easier to just Tweet – it’s safer that way.  But it’s not healing, and it’s not remedial.  Good people from all parties, and all those who gave up on politics years ago, need to find a better way than the “us” versus “them” mentality.  Whatever the solutions are for our country, they will involve a coming together on a national scale.  We all love this land too much to permit the few to ruin our dialogue.  It’s when we come together that our more progressive future is secured.  I suppose that’s why I’m a Liberal – proud of it.  But I’m a Canadian first; all else must take second place.Note:  These personal sidebars will run occasionally through the 50 or so posts that will make up the series on liberalism.