It Takes Two

 

Ever danced?  Ever danced with someone who didn't want to?  Or wasn't very good at it?  Sometimes it is just 'easier' to walk away and find a new partner...

Right now I see multiple people advising the 'left' to find a way to 'work with' the alt right.  Except, how do you manage to 'dance' with someone who doesn't want to be an equal partner?

How do you convince someone to set aside their demands, rational or not, and be flexible?  How do you dance a tango when they want to, I dunno, 'break' dance?  The only 'victory' is a zero sum game of 'you' gaining everything you want and letting the other person not 'gain' (or win) anything at all?

How do you build a relationship when they don't want a relationship with 'you' (insert 'reasons') and would rather see you dead?  When they call whole classes of fellow human beings 'useless eaters'?  Who want to take away, in the case of the Canadian alt right, universal health care and social safety nets (which are already too flimsy, in my opinion.)

The paradox of tolerance is a look at what happens when someone who will not tolerate another and keeps demanding you meet them in the centre - but every time you try to, they move the 'centre' further 'right'?  Eventually dragging *you* into the realm of the 'right'?  So there comes a point when you have to stand up and say, I'm not tolerating your voice of hate and vindictiveness...

I *know* not all USians are alt right.  Not all Canadians are alt right.  And yet, somehow their angry voices, demanding 'justice' because something something gazpacho, seem to get all sorts of media coverage, lies get repeated ad nauseum until people who are primed to believe those lies accept them as truth.

Some of the alt right in Canada are already throwing shade at PMMC, saying that the whole problem with Canada is NAFTA, and blaming Justin Trudeau - and the Liberals - for NAFTA.

Which is a bit hysterically hilarious, given NAFTA was Brian Mulroney's 'baby', along with Ronald Reagan.  And the two of them famously singing When Irish Eyes are Smiling (yes, there is video.)

Whatever transpires today at the White House, I am relieved that our PM is willing to talk, but not mess around.  The president has constantly accused Canadians of 'ripping' the US off and the way he's 'punishing' us is to destroy our economy - or try to.   But PMMC actually knows how the economy works and he is willing to protect Canada and Canadians, and is already making deals with countries other than with the currently bad faith president, who has bankrupted 6 (or is it 7) businesses, and seems determined to bankrupt the US and destroy hundreds, nay thousands, of small businesses of *his own citizens* in order to trash Canada's democracy, too.

The effects of the tariffs are already being felt in the US marketplace.  Instead of dozens of container ships docking in the US, many are re-directing to Vancouver, BC.  The evidence will soon show up in the stores, with empty shelves because no one wants to, and many more cannot *afford* to pay tariffs in the triple digits.

So if Mr. Carney walks away from Washington, DC today and turns his (our?) back on the US?  Pretty sure the majority of Canadians are going to be just fine looking elsewhere.  No doubt he'll have Down With Webster on his playlist...