Monday, April 25, 2022

The Wonderful Humiliation of Pierre Poilievre

There are about a thousand things I would rather do than write another post about Pierre Poilievre. 

But I feel I have no choice because our shabby Con media is letting that ugly fascist get way with murder.

And has not even bothered to challenge some of the dangerous nonsense pouring out of his every orifice.

But at last that could be changing.

For some members of the media are finally starting to challenge the grotesquely inflated myth of Poilievre. 

And Andrew Coyne has done a pretty good job of taking the wind out of his sails.

Until about five minutes ago the conventional wisdom on Pierre Poilievre was: can win the party; can’t win the country. Sure, he might thrill the Conservative base, but to Mr. and Mrs. Moderate Voter he was about as appealing as a cold sore. Only a fool would bet on him becoming prime minister.

The new conventional wisdom? Only a fool would bet against it. Hasn’t he been packing them in at campaign appearances across the West – even in Toronto! – in numbers not seen since the dawn of Justin Trudeau?

Popping his shabby media balloon.

Before we get too carried away, however, we should recognize that the new conventional wisdom is more the mirror of the old than its opposite. Both are rooted in that most powerful of journalistic instincts, the quest for narrative – for turning points, unexpected twists, and yes, for upended conventional wisdom: the triumph of the underestimated, as inevitable in hindsight as it seemed unlikely in advance.

So: Maybe Mr. Poilievre’s crowds are evidence of a hitherto undetected groundswell of popular support, beyond his existing base. Or maybe it’s just the same story as before: He excites the excitable. 

Daring to question why any decent Canadian would find him appealing.

Part of Mr. Poilievre’s appeal is genuinely cross-partisan and non-ideological. Voters, whatever their stripe, are drawn to a candidate who does not apologize for who he is; who stands up for himself and his beliefs whatever others may say of him or them; who is, as they say, “authentic.” But partisans like a fighter. For them, what makes Mr. Poilievre authentic is not his consistency on the issues or his record of truth-telling, neither of which are much in evidence, but his willingness to be as belligerent toward his political opponents as is humanly possible.

And what that says about him AND his supporters.

Indeed, whatever is new in politics that Mr. Poilievre might claim to represent, what is not new is the readiness of people to believe what they want to believe. There is always a constituency for the politician who tells people that they don’t have to do what they don’t want to do, or that they don’t have to pay for things they don’t want to pay for.

The notion, likewise, that he stands for a particularly robust form of conservatism, is equally unsupported by the evidence, beyond some inflammatory rhetoric. Certainly we know, given his enthusiastic support for the Ottawa hostage-takers, how seriously he takes law and order. But what else? Does he have a plan to balance the budget? What taxes would he cut? What programs would he privatize?

And of course, at a time when fascists of every stripe are on the march, Coyne's verdict couldn't be more deliciously humiliating.

I get why this sort of thing, like his endorsement of the anti-vaxxers, excites the fringes. It might even be enough to carry him to the party leadership. It’s just not clear yet why it makes him a serious contender for prime minister.

Although this from another Con is pretty good too….

And this after he dumped on Steam Whistle beer for being too "woke" and promoted Oast beer instead is absolutely hilarious.


It seems that not even money or free publicity can make some Canadians support Poilievre. 

You know, yesterday in France and Slovenia right-wing fascists were defeated, and some are suggesting that the populist tide is finally retreating.

So now it's our turn to make sure that our grubby fascist leader NEVER becomes Prime Minister.

Before he corrupts our country further...


10 comments:

Brian Dundas said...

I hope Coyne is right. He's never been before, but, I can hope.

Nazi loss in France is good news, of course, and we must make we keep our end of the bargain as progressives to squash these bugs and keep Canada a democracy.

Other signs are ominous, though. Elon Musk buying Twitter (I.E. Trump reinstated and any Nazi disinformation goes) would be a terrible development. I only use it to follow soccer creators(go Arsenal), but, I'd bail if this comes to fruition.

Other troubling signs include the continuing existence of Bitter Third Way Warren and Dead Wild Roses, whose hatred of trans people is legion and who is now posting videos from the most right wing haters on the planet, on Progressive Bloggers. Who is in charge over there?

Keep up the fight. Viva le France!

Simon said...

Hi Brian....Coyne is like a broken clock, he's right twice a year. And at a time when others in the media seem hypnotized by the grubby poilievre, i welcome what he had to say about him. As for the general state of the world, you're right, it's a mess. I too am disappointed that Elon Musk has bought Twitter, and although I will stay on to see what happens next, if it turns out to be a sewer of Trumpy disgustingness, I will step away. But as you point out, Progressive Bloggers these days is not much better. I am so glad that you have noticed the kind of right-wing crap Dead Wild Roses pumps out every day of the year. I can't believe that such bigoted trash is allowed to post on Progressive Bloggers. But the site is not monitored, and I suppose we should be grateful that it exists at all. I know I am because I enjoy blogging more than I enjoy being on Twitter, although I get much more encouragement there than I have ever got blogging. But I love the readers I do have, and the conversations we have are a cut above the others. So let's keep up the fight and long live Arsenal !!!

Jackie Blue said...

Pepe has been a career con hack since he was a teenager and I would imagine the Liberal war room is busy gathering the petabytes of material from his sordid spectacle of a "career." The Emergencies Act inquiry just started, and though Fife desperately tried to lob a stink bomb to distract from it, a six-year-old nontroversy is so necrotic that it could only be a dud. Pepe has three years to self-immolate thanks to the Liberal-NDP detente.

The Musk deal has to go through a process that may not be completed until the end of the year. As disturbing as the return of the Mango menace might be, it can only provide a contrast for Trudeau to run against and paint Pepe as a pipsqueak version of Trump.

I haven't yet decided what I'll do, as I only joined Twitter a couple months ago. I might stay for the next few years until the next federal elections here at home and up in Canada. Although I did tweet earlier that with the jury still out on whether the world is really going to hell in a handbasket, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for the Aga Khan to gift our man in Ottawa an island all his own, and PMJT send out invites to any decent people who want to move to it. A physical version of CounterSocial, somewhere in the Caribbean. A girl can dream can't she? 🙃

Pierre D. said...

Pigeon Pierre is putrid.
He won't make the PM leap. He'll be stuck in Opposition for another 2-4 years and then...eventually Mr. Trudeau will go to the private sector or motivational circuit and Chrystia Freeland will take charge.

And boy oh boy if you thought Boy Wonder Justin was a tough opponent, wait until Chrystia gets home. You'd better practice those argumentation skills now, Mr. Poilievre...

Anonymous said...

Hi Simon, I agree it must be tedious writing about PP's kaka but someone has to call out his nonsense other than the seldom seen articles such as Coyne's and you're just the man for the job. Hopefully PP's continued preachings of the warped utopia he's promising his flock of long in the tooth and short in the cognizance sheep will jolt enough of them in the media to say, whoa! Beam me back down Scotty! PP can't sustain the levels of BS he's spewing for 3.5 years without more and more of the media clapping back at his trumpy ways.

Good news. It sounds like the just announced public inquiry will be quite thorough and I can't wait for the results. Ideally, any Con MP who was involved with the insurrection will be charged as such. Aiding and abetting an illegal occupation and attempted overthrow of a government should come with serious consequences. I can picture Bergen, Scheer and PP collectively shitting their pants when that news broke. I would also bet that there were many other Con diapers filling up as well.

Bad news. Look out Ottawa! The motorcycle version of the Klueless Klux Klan is coming to town Friday and Saturday to drive around and yell freedumb while beeping their little horns. Surely PP wont miss out on the opportunity to show up and give a rousing speech to urge them on while giving every person and business affected by the earlier occupation a huge slap in the face. The Ottawa police are saying they wont let vehicles into the core so I guess we'll see how many big, hairy bikers will want to waddle down to the hill to stand around and yell freedumb all day.
JD

Simon said...

Hi Jackie...I can't believe that the Cons, and their senile stooge Robert Fife are still trying to make a story out of the Aga Khan story. But I guess it just shows how desperate they are. It's going to be a long three years, as the dreadful Pierre Poilievre is about to find out. I saw he was rattling on about bitcoin at a tiny rally at what looked like a long term care centre. I'm sure the seniors got a lot out of that one, and I can only hope that Poilievre didn't convince any of them to invest their savings in that grifter scam. As for Elon Musk, who I despise, I'm not pleased to see him takeover Twitter, but I'm not planning to go anywhere. That's what the fascists would want us to do, and if I can now insult them with no holds barred, so much the better...

Simon said...

Hi Pierre....Poilievre has always been a heartless Con, a compulsive liar, and a grotesque hypocrite. So while thanks to our shabby media he is riding high now, time will be his undoing. He will almost certainly win the Con leadership, but three years is a long tine, and his past will surely come back to haunt him, and bring him and his depraved Cons down. What I fear though is that he will stir up the trucker fascists and cause some of them to try to kill Trudeau or spark a terrorist wave. Until the Cons are finally crushed we are all in terrible danger. I realize many Canadians are so comatose they don't believe that can happen here, but it can, and if it does they will wonder how they could have been so blind....

Simon said...

Hi JD...The only reason I complained about having to write about Poilievre is that I fear he could get between me and summer. But I have written about him for so long, and have so many pictures, I know it's practically my duty to help bring him down. For I would never forgive myself if I didn't. I am hoping the public inquiry will take a close look at what Poilievre did during the terrorist occupation of Ottawa, although I don't want to raise my hopes, especially since so many in the MSM are no better than cheerleaders. But hopefully those of us in social media can put the pressure on them to do some investigative reporting and if they do that Poilievre's gossamer wings will fold up in mid-flight. Certainly when the motorcycle version of the trucker fuckers invade Ottawa, Poilievre should be pressed into denouncing them. And whether he does or he doesn't, he will lose many of his cult supporters so thank you bikers !!!!

Anonymous said...

Strange behaviour, PP has either been infected with the conspiracy transmitted Freedumb virus or he believes his superior intellect can transform Canada into a glorious free (enterprise) country where the industrious are richly rewarded and the slackers are relegated to the basement and kept around as examples of failure and feel good pity. Considering the Freedumb gang are already suspicious that he might be one of the enemy as he was a member of World Economic Forum, has voted against anti abortion legislation much to the chagrin of the zealot crowd and has a bizarre infatuation with Bitcoin as legal tender its hard to see how he is going to formulate a universal glue that binds this motley crew together when a little stress is applied. The only other option is to put his glued together creation in a glass viewing cage and attack anyone who might challenge its utility. Perhaps the Freedumbers are useful after all!

Simon said...

Hi anon@9:52 PM....I'm not sure what is motivating Poilievre, but I fear that by inhaling too many of his own farts he has begun to believe his own propaganda, or at least the propaganda our hack media is creating for him. I wasn't kidding when I said he has an evangelical fervour, and seems to truly believe that he is the Son of Harper whose destiny is to save this country from the satanic "Justinflation" with the help of the crypto forces of bitcoin. And of course what binds this motley crew together is Trudeau hate, and the desire to destroy everything that makes up the Canada we know and love. How long will the Freedumb mob remain with him when he is eventually forced to moderate his demagogic campaign to try attract more moderate voters remains to be seen. But right now they worship him, and they are all dangerous....