Liberalism - Sidebar #4

There are those occasions when liberals are required to put down their policy books and consultations and brace themselves for a fight.  Like most political persuasions, liberals have governed and fought in wars and proven their worth.  Liberalism’s very birthing process involved the struggle against tyranny, excessive moralism, economic monopoly and ideological authoritarianism.It goes against my nature, but I believe the time has arrived for liberals in numerous camps across this country to rise up against what governance and the public space has become.  My background has helped me to seek accommodation with political foes across the aisle.  Moreover, the privilege of working with those conservatives that are progressive has been both instructive and personally empowering.But I refuse to accept the ideological kind that currently seeks to sweep away our sense of decency and respect.  I feel a bit like Democratic presidential hopeful Adlai Stevenson in a campaign speech in 1952.  Following two months of being pilloried by his opponents with outlandish representations of mistruths, he made the following proposition: “I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.”The rigid conservative ideology present in federal governing circles today cuts against the grain of the vast majority of us, including progressive conservatives.  It would be foolish to yield the ground to that brand of political philosophy that believes in a scorched earth policy.  I have never experienced a vicious attack by any well-meaning conservative, but when these posts on liberalism began, the email responses introduced be to the gross underbelly of Internet life.  I have mentioned before how these individuals use ghost email addresses and how we have nevertheless identified many of them as hitmen on the fringe of the intolerant conservative right.  My wife finally gave up reading them because, in truth, it made her despair for the country.The comments covered everything from saying I was an "NDP lunatic" to some wishing someone would just run me over with a truck.  The most difficult were those where the sickest of these anonymous commentors used the "n" work to deride my children from Africa and our choice of bringing them to Canada.We have saved all the comments, the email and IP addresses.  There are more despicable ones that don’t merit mention here; although one RCMP friend of mine said some of them border on “hatred” and should be pursued.  I have not chosen that option because you’re supposed to develop a thick skin in politics.  Unfortunately I haven’t, and those repeated emails using the “n” word in reference to my children cut me to the core.  The senders surely know it and seek with glee to aid to my pain, and that of my wife.  In Canada, of all places.I am smart enough to know that none of these statements would be supported in any way, shape or form by even one Conservative MP in the House of Commons, or by the countless progressive conservatives who add to the quality of life in every community across the country.  They come instead from a growing cottage industry of hate that masks its intolerance in anonymity.  In a past age they would hide their true identities by wearing white cloaks and hoods.  Today they just need a keyboard.  These individuals have latched on to one particular party and used that supposed legitimacy to foster intolerance and ignorance.  No wing of any other federal party has such an organized campaign, although I’m sure there are individual liberals out there who demonstrate the same crudity.These posts have not been about the Liberal Party but about small “l” liberals who inhabit every political party, every fibre of community activism, and every collective group whose heart beats for Canada.  The ideological conservatives are worried about you, but hold on to a certain hope that our membership in different camps will keep us from coming together.  They may be right.  Yet I’m experiencing a growing sense that the good people of Canada, from all political persuasions, are saying enough to this kind of vengeful influence in this land.We need a muscular liberalism because the time has come for fighting and struggle.  All the good policy in the world means little if we permit the purveyors of intolerance, prejudice and hatred to have the field.  It is time for the “gathering,” for the coming together of citizens, with all their differences in views, to say they agree on this one thing: Canada will not slide down the slope of hatred, loathing, rancor, misrepresentation and destructive anonymity.  Enough is enough, and we’re ready to come together to stop this influence that is sapping the Canadian spirit.