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Kamloops News

THOMPSON: America's Right Wing cancer is spreading, Canadians need to stand against it

February 21, 2022 - 12:00 PM

 


OPINION


Democracy is the right to vote for your leader. It is a really simple definition, and a concept worthy of a fight to the death. Indeed, millions of Americans and Canadians who value this freedom have done just that over the past 246 years.

It is time…past time really…for a very polite, largely silent Canadian majority to speak up. Members of the RNC - Republican National Cult - in the U.S. have found “cousins” here willing to buy into their perverse views of freedom and democracy.

Of course, it is neither democracy nor freedom that Republicans in the States support…it is autocracy. The democracy talk…the faux flag-waving patriotism…all part of the “Big Lie” that is working in the United States to make elections a sham and position governance as an assault on individual rights.

If Republicans have their way this November…the mid-term elections for one-third of the Senate and the entire House of Representatives will no more reflect the will of the people than Vladimir Putin’s “elections” in Russia. A minority of Americans might well pull the plug on democracy…but they want more…blame everyone but themselves for society’s ills and build alliances with anarchists like themselves in other countries.

Right Wingers suckered far too many Canadians with the recent convoy protests in Ottawa and across much of the country. It was a test. How gullible are Canadians? Maybe just enough. After all, the Right Wing in America has proven the business model: you don’t need a majority…you just need an angry minority…and they can be angry about nearly anything. That anger is then manipulated and re-directed toward the government they hate and blame for everything that is wrong.

And the Right Wingers in America…they couldn’t be happier. You see, America is close to proving that a cult-like 30 percent of a country is the new majority. Once in control, these folks can put an end to immigration, practice racism with zeal, ensure the deck is stacked in their favour, and, of course, a favourite Right-Wing thing…control their women.

The truckers here in Canada - many of whom aren’t truckers at all - like freedom…but they define freedom as their right to do as they please. They believe everyone else’s freedom ends when and where we don’t agree with them.

Some of my friends on Facebook seemed confused when apparent members of the military and veterans formed a line between Ottawa police and protesters last week. “Maybe there’s more to this…” one friend naively posted. No, not at all.

First of all, just because someone is in the military or is a veteran…doesn’t mean you should give them blanket admiration. A good percentage - maybe one in ten - of those I served with in the U.S. Air Force were not decent folks…people I wouldn’t trust around family or friends.

The popular “thank-you-for-your-service” courtesy we extend to members of the military or veterans shouldn’t be automatic…no more than we should thank police officers who might bully or kill rather than serve and protect.

Does it simply reinforce bad behaviour when we thank someone we don’t know anything about…other than they wore a uniform? If I don’t know a little something about you…I’ll reserve any thanks-for-your-service comments until I do.

When people harass you about wearing a mask…or taking a vaccine - two facts proven by science - or accost you over your decision to protect fellow human beings…it is an attack on both freedom and democracy. This happens across Canada…now.

And we shouldn’t accept it. We need to fight the ignorance…the sheer ignorance of those who think the few should decide for the many…even though it is the many who know the truth…the facts…reality.

We do not owe the courtesy of understanding to those who fight everything we know to be true as an attack on their individual rights…or accept their opinions. They are wrong...demonstrably wrong. What they do harms - irreparably - others. They don’t care…and they tell us so.

This Right Wing cancer that started in America…like any cancer…is spreading. It is here.

We need to stand up against the few dictating to the many before it is too late. Don’t be silent…it’s not being polite…it’s being irresponsible.

Remember, democracy is the right to vote for your leader. And when those you support lose in a valid, legal election…you give way in a peaceful transition. You don’t lie…and without even a shred of evidence claim voter fraud…and promote absurd conspiracies.

The Trumpists, Republican National Cult and Right Wing insurrectionists have a choke hold on America. Don’t think for another moment that it can’t happen here. It already is.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.


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