Support

I just got a call from the socialist political party I support. It turns out they’re beating the bushes and digging in the couch cushions to try to find financial support for their upcoming election drive. The very nice young woman who called me warned me that the opposing party (which is doing a pretty okay job of running the province, if you ask me, which you haven’t done, but I’m telling you anyway) starting to fundraise for their party already (DANGER! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER! UPCOMING ELECTION!). I would have been *far more frightened* had she been able to pronounce the leader of the provincial opposition’s name.

I have been a philosophical supporter of the provincial socialist party (otherwise known as the New Democratic Party) for as long as I can remember. I’m talking five, six years old. My indoctrination took place early, often, and was fairly comprehensive. And it’s the good kind of indoctrination, and I’m not going to debate politicial ideals in this post. It was only natural last year when I actually purchased a membership and became an actual card-carrying socialist (I’ve carried cards stating as much before, but they’ve been mostly handmade, laminated with mactac, and coloured in in highlighter and magic marker). I took out a membership during the NDP leadership race.

I did not cast my vote for the man who is now leading the party.

So this nice woman stumbled through his name, which was kind of cute because I don’t like the guy, and then she asked me for my support for the provincial party in the upcoming election campaign. I told her, “you know, I have absolutely no problem providing financial support for my provincial party, and I have absolutely no problem providing support for candidates running in my riding. But I will not…I WILL not support Dwain Lingenfelter. I will not give you support to run him as the party leader. I do not support him as party leader. I’m actually considering not supporting the party at all while he is leader. I firmly believe he will drive this party into the ground. He is an ass, and a political opportunist. Worse yet, he is inconsistent and would most likely deny being a political opportunist. I feel that any money I give to this campaign, with him leading the party, will be throwing good money after bad, or bad money after good, or however that expression goes, I’ll be wasting my money and my effort. Should Dwain Lingenfelter be hit by a meteorite, and I’m not saying I want him to be, but should he become a victim of the fell chance of circumstance, as William Ernest Henley would say, I would donate craploads of money, and my volunteer time, to the party. But I cannot support you with him in the lead. My apologies.”

“Oh, um…ohhh…” I can tell she’s looking at a sheet and checking if my option is on her list. “…uhhh….would you like me to arrange a time to call you back, or would you like me to give you a number for you to call at a later time?”

And I thought, this…**this** is one of the reasons I support the provincial socialist party. It’s the unbridled and slightly mad optimism. I asked her for her callback number, and told her I would think about it. Had she been on the ball, she would have told me all the reasons I should support the *party* even if I don’t support the *leader*. That would have been a good thing for her to say. Because then I would have said “Normally, I would agree with you. However, I believe that if I supported the party, that should the party win, it would mean Dwain Lingenfelter would be leader of the province, and that, Miss, that would make me personally at least partially responsible for the downfall of the provincial government. Because I believe Dwain Lingenfelter would run this province into the ground. Possibly even further. Possibly he would run this province **all the way to CHINA**.”

But she didn’t ask, and I didn’t say that. If she’d asked, I’d have said it, though.

Yet another reason, SWCoyote, I would not do well in politics. I don’t think I’d be good putting my support behind someone duly elected to lead if I thought they were bad for the people.


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14 responses to “Support”

  1. Silent Winged Coyote Avatar
    Silent Winged Coyote

    Actually that’s kind of the attitude I’m looking for in my politicians. Someone willing to stand up for the people they represent rather than the rich folks who pay for them or the political party which tells them what to do.

  2. cenobyte Avatar
    cenobyte

    Fair enough, but that’s not what political parties are looking for. And Independents don’t do well.

  3. Brielle128 Avatar
    Brielle128

    Oh My God! How can you possibly be the exact same person as me? How? Because every single word you wrote, was me. EXACTLY ME! (ok i see you get our connection)
    So I’ll get past the HERE HERE and just move on. Why, tell me, do the NDP think that if they stand up, yell loud enough, interrupt enough and be childish in the Leg long enough that we, the stupid people will think they are the schoolyard bullies and we should support them because after all, we wouldn’t like to look like idiots supporting the team thats getting clobbered.
    Dwain….DWAIN THE BATHTUB I’M DWONDING!
    The folks that shoved this ideology down my throat since I was five, tugged me along to meetings where eveyrone was cheering, waving arms and hugging, or to a committe house they rented and gave me copious amounts of powdered creamer, sugar and coffee (in that order) in styrofoam cups, then handed me a ruler and told me to cross out names on huge stack of paper, are the folks that today, when I have a brain AND an opinion tell me I don’t know what I am talking about.
    Like, my maternal influence the other day was SO excited because her bestest buddy in the WHOLE world added her on facebook and old Dwanyie and her go waaayyyyy back and how wonderful (blah blah blah) he is and how his new wife is..(it was here that I just turned off the noise.)
    We have become a generation of thinkers. Not sheep. And we can sit back, debate intelligently and without name calling and it pleases me.
    I tried to do this with my maternal influence and she started…YES SHE STARTED calling Mr Wall and his co-workers names. I am totally serious. They sit around at strategy meetings and think up names, slurs and actually DIG for crap on these folks instead of working to make this place better for us. How do I know this? Because my maternal influence and my step-paternal influence used to be muckky mucks in the 80’s when they were in power.
    I am infuriated and I hope I calm down before I blow an O-ring.
    They had me…had me and they pushed me away to the very team that they told me was evil.
    Is this really the team I supported? Why?
    Anyway, great entry. Thank you.

  4. Mootinator Avatar
    Mootinator

    “So I’ll get past the HERE HERE.”

    It’s Hear, hear!

    This pet peeve moment has been brought to you by freedom.

  5. Doowleb Avatar
    Doowleb

    he is inconsistent

    I thought inconsistency and political expediency were the hallmark of all NDPers.

  6. cenobyte Avatar
    cenobyte

    Doowleb, I don’t think so, no. Not any moreso than any other politician.

  7. cenobyte Avatar
    cenobyte

    I also want to make this one thing clear: I am still a card-carrying socialist. You can say what you want about what you think of my intellect and/or social conscience because of that, and you can go ahead and insult my values and my chosen political party all you want. In the end, that all amounts to kids standing in the playground shouting NEENER NEENER! at each other.

    I have not joined the Sask Party (although I’ve thought about being a member of both, but I think that’s technically not allowed in either party’s membership guidelines). I think there must be an awful lot of “right wing-nuts” around here who are very, *very* upset at how moderate the Sask Party has ended up. Thankfully, I am one of the “left wing-nuts” who is thankful that they *have* been so moderate.

    Anyway, yeah. I just wanted to make it clear that I have not formally rescinded my NDP membership. I’m just not going to support Dwain Lingenfelter in any way, shape, or form.

  8. coldcanadian Avatar
    coldcanadian

    Since birth I have been raised as a conservative, and I have learned over the years that rarely is anything as drastic as politicians of any stripe would lead you to believe.

    I was linked here by smalldeadanimals, and I truly like your writing. I have found that the individual matters every bit as much as the party. No matter what party you vote for, your representative must have integrety before they deserve your support.

    You and I may disagree on politics, but we evidently agree on the merits of individual members.

    Very nice bournal.

  9. cenobyte Avatar
    cenobyte

    Thank you, coldcanadian, for your comment, and for your candor.

    It always makes me happy when folks can see past each other’s opinions to the commonality which lies beneath.

  10. coldcanadian Avatar
    coldcanadian

    You know, I am a right wing nut who is not at all upset with how moderate the Saskparty has been.

    This province has been socialist for quite some time, and it will take time for both sides to see that while they may not like the politics of the other party, the world will not end under either party. And the leader will always be the representative of what that party stands for, so choose your leader carefully.

    This is every bit as true for Lingenfelter as it was for Devine and the conservatives. So the NDP should look long and hard to make sure he REALLY is what the party wants him to represent.

    Any party can get burned by a bad leader. Or an opportunistic one. I may not have liked Calvert, but I never questioned his motives.

  11. Stephen Avatar
    Stephen

    You think Wall’s doing a pretty good job of managing the economy?

    He’s just admitted–after months of denial–that there’s a huge hole in the province’s finances.

    He came into office with over $2.3 billion in the bank.

    Now, he’s running a huge deficit, and the province is heading into a recession.

    Heaven save us from such mismanagement: if you want to know who’s running the province into the ground, look no farther than Brad Wall.

  12. cenobyte Avatar
    cenobyte

    Stephen – I said I thought the current government is doing a pretty okay job of running the province.

    Sure, the economy is part of that, and if Saskatchewan posts a deficit this year, that’s TWO YEARS after most places, so I think the province has done well in a global recession.

    As my friend Smarty Pants would say – what would you have done differently? I think the SaskParty has done a pretty okay job. I didn’t say “the best job EVAR”, and I didn’t say “a really good job”. I said a pretty okay job.

  13. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    Yeah, right…you’ve supported the NDP…and the SP is doing a good job. Just exactly what do you consider a good job? Blowing two billion dollars left behind by the NDP government? Killing a deal to open the PA pulp mill after posting signs during the campaign saying “Elect Hickie and Keep the Mill Open?” Selling off SaskFerco and blowing the 750 million from that sale also? Calling for Ralph Goodale’s head for not allowing Saskatchewan to keep its non-renewable resource revenue, and then being silent when your master, Stephen Harper broke that promise?

    If that’s what you consider a good job, then you are clearly an old Devine Conservative like the 18 repeat callers to the voice of the SP…NewsTalk Radio.

    That these free enterprise whiz kids could miss the fact that potash customers were in serious recession and probably wouldn’t be in a buying mood speaks volumes about their business acumen. That the NDP brought this to the fore right at budget time last spring speaks volumes about THEIR business acumen. Odd, isn’t it?

    Wall is a daddy’s boy, running the province the way he did the two private ventures he attempted, which both tanked. The 80s are back and the results will be the same. Will we never learn?

  14. cenobyte Avatar

    *snort*
    Ed, I hope you *meant* for that post to be funny.

    I’m TOTALLY an “old Devine Conservative”. TOTALLY. That’s what you get to be when you’re a card-carrying socialist. They secretly take your money and put it in the “Grant Devine Re-election Fund”. Which is in an old coffee can they keep in the shed, along with some shotgun shells and the skull of a coyote.

    I’m in full agreement, all sarcasm aside, that the SaskParty truly effed things up with the whole potash thing. And I think they are now, and will continue to, suffer for it. I don’t think we ever *will* learn. That’s kind of the nature of politics, sex, and war, isn’t it?

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