Liberalism - Time for the "Least Likelys"

There were an unusual amount of responses to yesterday’s blog concerning willful ignorance, with the vast majority expressing their concern that hyper-partisanship has overtaken both the public and political space in Canada.One friend – a sincere Conservative – states the partisanship and absolutism have grown to such a degree that he has taken to “spamming” many of his own party’s blogs and emails because of the extremism resident within the language.  He closed one paragraph by cautioning: “You present a radical but refreshing approach to solving issues that are ripping at the heart of our precious country.  For the many that cannot accept radical change, you present a problem.”  It’s a sad statement of the times that I can’t mention my friend’s name lest he be ripped apart by the radical fringe of his own party.Someone else wrote in with a link to a YouTube video about conformity and research from America that demonstrates how people willingly go along with errant facts just to get along or not rock the boat  – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJAHe mentioned listening to a talk radio show in the morning, in which the host “woefully slagged” Michael Ignatieff, repeating the usual Conservative characterizations of the Liberal leader.  But after interviewing him, the host had to admit he was actually impressed with the Ignatieff's candor and intelligence, yet he couldn’t bring himself to refute his own absolutes of only a few moments earlier. The writer is also worried that our own inability to “self-correct” is leading us down a difficult path.And then there was the insightful article by Jeffrey Simpson in the Globe and Mail yesterday morning.  In an article titled: “Relax folks, we won’t be channeling Fox News North,” he pokes holes in the core conservative (small  "c') argument that Canada’s media tilt liberal or leftward.  “The argument is bunk on its face.  If you totted up all the clearly right-wing outlets and commentators and put them against the leftish-wing ones … the right-wing voices would win every time.”  Here was a good journalist, refuting the blindness.  This is indeed something most sensible Canadians have understood for the last number of years, yet a small minority from the right refuse to accept the realities while they promote the opposite.  In a prescient observation, Simpson adds:

Facts, however, never got in the way of ideological conviction.”

Take a read; it’s timely - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/relax-folks-we-wont-be-channelling-fox-news-north/article1638801/One would think that with the distractions of summer upon us, people wouldn’t be cognizant of the “false certainties” winding their pernicious way through the political order.  Yet citizens sense it in their bones and remain deeply uncomfortable.  Articles like Simpson’s, or the emails and blogs spammed by my Conservative friend, confirm for them that something is amiss.  There’s a subtle malevolence in the currents beneath our feet and we fear its pull.One American researcher, James Kuklinski of the University of Illinois, calls the hyper-partisanship of the age the “I know I’m right” syndrome and considers it a “potentially formidable problem in a democratic system.  “It implies not only that most people will resist correcting their factual beliefs,” he continues, “but also that the very people who most need to correct them will be least likely to do so.”These posts on liberalism this summer are for the latter group – the “least likleys" in all parties or independents.  Despite our policy differences, we simply have to start fighting back against a minority that uses innuendo and partial truths to support and sustain the attitudes of a good many Canadians, against their own better judgments.  Good conservatives don’t buy into this stuff; neither do the majority of Canadians.The gift of liberalism to all the federal parties is the belief that, not only does the individual citizen count, but that they are worth the effort of empowerment and enlightenment.  And it’s when Canadians receive that gift in its historic form that they can call their political parties to order.  Time for the “least likelys” to enter the fray.