Stephen Harper, Strangelove Flanagan, and the Politics of Fear

We know what he has become; the monstrous leader of the most evil political cult this country has ever known.

A morally depraved demagogue who is using fear as a weapon against his own people, and using racism to divide them. 

So he can snatch another another bloody majority, and use his anti-terrorist bill to turn this country into a police state.

Even if, as Ralph Surette writes, he destroys our Canada beyond recognition. 

It’s getting worse. 

Stephen Harper is now serving notice that he’s willing to tear the social fabric of the country apart if that’s what it takes to get his party re-elected. That is, if torquing democratic process, the rule of law, election rules, the tax system etc., etc., to make them conform to Harperism isn’t enough, he’ll throw stink bombs in the public place in the expectation that, amid the chaos, he’ll be seen as the strong hand who can straighten things out.

Because now he's desperate, fear is all he's got left after he blew up the economy. And since he lacks a moral compass, and he's crazy, he's capable of ANYTHING.

But how did this weird bird become the monster he is today?



And the answer is really simple. He's a clinical psychopath so he can't feel the pain of others.

And he learned all he knows about the politics of fear from his old mentor, Tom "Strangelove" Flanagan.



It was Flanagan, who is now out of favour with Harper, who taught the young politician to embrace the politics of fear. And Harper listened to everything that Flanagan had to say about politics. In those days, Flanagan was seen as “the master strategist, the godfather — even of Harper,” as right-wing commentator Ezra Levant explained to writer Marci McDonald in an in-depth profile of Flanagan for the Walrus magazine.

Harper was a good pupil.

In his 2009 book, Harper’s Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power, Flanagan provides a revealing look at how Harper learned that exploiting citizens’ fears works on everything from winning votes to raising money. One lesson? Follow “the time-honoured advice for raising money by direct mail — make people angry and afraid, and set an opponent for them to give against.”

And Strangelove, the man from Indiana, was one of those who helped introduce Republican-style politics into Canada.

And helped make Harper the man he is today...



A grotesque political thug and bully, about as Canadian as a three dollar bill.

Here’s the picture. No prime minister before — not Paul Martin, Jean Chrétien, Brian Mulroney, Pierre Trudeau, Lester Pearson, John Diefenbaker and beyond — have ever assaulted the very principle of Parliament itself, ever attacked the chief justice of the supreme court, ever muzzled the scientists, neutered the parliamentary committee system, and so on. 

Dirty politics, corruption — yes indeed. But Harperism is worse than all that. It is an ideological assault on the elements of the constitutional order. It hangs pictures of the Queen all over, but owes its loyalties to the same dark, anti-democratic, corporate and imperialist forces that drive the American right wing.

And an alien RepubliCon if ever there was one...



And the good news? We should be grateful that Harper dumped Flanagan, because now Strangelove can truly speak his mind.

And tell us what kind of man Harper really is...



Because that is one of the best descriptions of Harper I have ever heard. A predator who would feed on our Canada and its values.

And we should use that image a LOT in the next election campaign, because we really do need to defeat him. 

Or you know how this movie will end.

With Harper celebrating, Flanagan rising out of his wheelchair screaming...



And what's left of our shattered country.

Going up in flames...



He is out of control, he is crazy, he is turning this country into a mad house.

And we must defeat that ghastly monster before he finally destroys it...



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