BC is a microcosm of what is wrong with politics across North America. The Clark government was voted in by people invested in the status quo, and the preservation of existing lifestyles and power structures.... I'm an outspoken critic of Stephen Harper, but his flat statement about people not being willing to "sacrifice the economy for the environment, no matter what they say" is as true as it is cynical. I can spend all the time in the world describing the things I don't like about Clark, but that is not going to change her view of herself. The fact is, she's quite comfortable with herself, and possesses an ass triple coated with teflon. She is an advocate for those as opportunistic as herself, and feels empowered to work for the maintenance of a system that benefits people who behave like sharks in our societal ocean. Those of us that have the temerity to label ourselves as "progressive" very rarely offer up a roadmap out of this quagmire. Fundamentally, we behave similarly to our conservative adversaries, by offering up unsustainable promises to our constituents....we cater to their bottom line. The rich want the system to perform in a way that guarantees the maintenance of their wealth, the poor would like the system to work in a way that redistributes the wealth to them. Humans do that...vote preferences that affect them immediately. The idea that we have to look at the big picture and wrestle with the messiness of the human condition (and actually concede that our political enemies make points that are worthy of serious consideration) is for most of us an abstraction, better left to philosophers and political scientists to sort out. The fact is, the edifice's that set themselves as the grand apologists for their respective philosophic/economic/political cultures (labour unions, conservative think tanks, media outlets editorially dedicated to either side of the divide, etc.) are usually scoring no more than talking points, offering very little of substance to the constituents they claim to serve. What always seems to be a constant (at least until the pipeline rejection expressed by Kitimat, a community that would benefit mightily from the pipeline's presence) is the desire for immediate satisfaction. Clark offered that to a lot of people, who are morally insulated from her misdeeds and hypocrisies. Her voters, when marking their ballots, essentially told her, "don't change the climate that brought us the wealth and privilege. Apart from that that, we really don't care what kind of person you are." Unfortunately, we do tend to kick to the curb those that possess a desire to guide us to a better place. Our cynicism and pessimism tells us the ship is going down, and we just want the ride to be as comfortable as possible. Hello Christy.
