Stephen Harper, Harper's War, and the Fear Factor

Well he's got his war, tomorrow's debate and vote in the House of Commons will be a mere formality.

But then he'll have to sell it, and that won't be easy.

Because he won't be able to claim that the Americans asked us to participate, since we now know he begged them to let him play with the big boys.

So he will have to use FEAR.

And as I pointed out last night that's exactly what he's already doing....



Trying to make it sound like we're facing a deadly threat, and that we need a Great Strong Leader like him to stop the ISIS crazies from beheading us in our beds.

Which if you remember had poor Michelle Rempel not so long ago bravely declaring that she felt secure in her bedroom...



Until Stephen Harper cranked up the fear factor, and no doubt let her know that fear means NOBODY is safe...



Which was at least half true, because as I also pointed out he isn't making our lives safer, he's making it more likely that the terrorists will attack us. 

In the confusion of the multiparty civil wars racking Syria and Iraq, it is difficult to say that Canadian intervention by means of air-delivered weapons is likely to make our targets less rather than more interested in finding Canada on a map, or less rather than more likely to radicalize a few misguided young men here at home.

But then Great Leader has another problem. He needs to scare Canadians to get them to support Harper's war.

He knows he has their support for now, but that he can't count on it for long, unless he can keep the fear factor going.

And the problem is he also needs to reassure them at the same time, because they are already anxious. 



It’s all about the anxieties of the middle class. By a staggering 74-17 margin, Mr. Graves says Canadians think the middle class is shrinking.

Wages are going down, unemployment is getting worse, the stock market is shaky, the dollar is tanking, and the housing market is teetering on the edge of a major correction.

And if he tries to scare Canadians even more, he's only likely to drive them away from him in even greater numbers.

By an almost 2-1 margin (47-27), Canadians describe themselves as “liberals” rather than “conservatives.” If a “big shift” has occurred, it is toward progressive rather than conservative approaches. If that analysis is correct, the Conservatives have a lock on their core vote, but not much room to grow.

Especially since for a majority of them government makes them feel safer, and he's trying to KILL it. 

If middle-class anxiety is indeed the bull’s-eye of politics, and if middle-class voters fear that the future will be worse than the past for them and their children, there is a Conservative narrative that lower taxes and less government will bring them relief from those anxieties, while the Liberals and NDP will counter that government can be a better elixir for their concerns and fears. 

The outcome of next year’s election will fundamentally depend on the outcome of that debate, which the Conservatives are currently losing.

So how will Stephen Harper scare Canadians while making them feel safe in their beds?

I have no idea, but it should be HILARIOUS...



And of course it won't work.

He needed to soften his image more than anything else, but now he can't do that.

He may think Harper's War will help him.

But it will only help finish him off...

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