We Are at War and We Must Mobilize Our Allies

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Although many Canadians don't yet realize it, we are at war; a worldwide class war of capital versus everyone else, a war which the bubble of the Keynesian welfare state temporarily obscured. In this war, the Right has daunting weapons. Over the past 20 years, capital has forged a unified coalition of business, politics, and fundamentalist religion. It owns most of the national and local media ... And through speculative manipulations, they have the power to disrupt the entire Canadian economy. As a result, they wield enormous influence over all levels of government and public opinion. The Right speaks with almost one voice and its vision is insinuating itself into the popular consensus. (1)

We are indeed at war, but our enemy is not the police, who are only following orders. And our enemy is not the corporate media, who write what they are told to write. And our enemy is not even Stephen Harper, who in this phenomenon of image politics, is only the current face of a formidable movement. He has no more power than we do.

Our enemy is Neoconservatism.

And now that we've been able to define that, we need to mobilize our allies, if we have any hope at all of restoring our democracy: "Because the success of the Right comes through carefully managing public opinion, the starting point for defeating the Right is through creating a well-informed public." (1)

Breaking Down the Conservative Myth

In 2004 Philip Agre wrote a paper: What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?

Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with it? As it happens, the answers to these questions are also simple:

Q: What is conservatism? A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.

Q: What is wrong with conservatism? A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world. (2)

What Agre is describing is not Conservatism but Neoconservatism, and therein lies the problem. The party now headed by Stephen Harper is not our historical Conservative "Tory" party, and we need to constantly remind Canadians of that. Neoconservatism is the antithesis of Conservatism and relates more to fascism than democracy.

But rather than force a demagogue on a democratic society, they wrap him up in a cloak of moderation and sell him as a man (or woman) of the people.

One time girlfriend of Leo Strauss (who is deemed to be the father of the neoconservative movement), Hannah Arendt, herself a respected political philosopher, once questioned whether Nazi Germany was in fact a full totalitarian dictatorship, since it depended so heavily on a "certain societal consensus". (3) Their success depended on directing and exploiting public opinion, and they did it masterfully.

That consensus was engineered by the masterful propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Today it is engineered by people like Karl Rove and Guy Giorno, who not only help to get their "leader" elected, but stick around to make sure they do as they're told. And when the government gets into trouble they send their "leader" on a photo-op, so they never have to wear the controversy, leaving others to clean up the mess.

Defining Our Allies - We're Stronger Than we Think

The conventional wisdom in electoral politics has been that getting the support of great numbers of people was more important than courting the wealthy who had money to spend. Rather than pleasing the well-off, good politics decreed that a party design policies to appeal to the great mass of middle-income voters, not the top 20 percent, but the 60 percent in the middle-income brackets. The bottom 20 percent could be safely ignored, as they could be assumed not to vote. However, their basic needs would be covered, not forgotten or left to charity. The favoured electoral strategy was to unite the middle, build support around programmes with wide appeal, and show how each benefits from programmes available to all. (4)

But neoconservatism takes a different approach. They unite upper-income voters around a programme that appeals to the interests of the wealthy, and then convince many middle- and low-income people of the advantages of more business and less government.

But more importantly they create common enemies of the 20% of society that are a nation's most vulnerable. Those who are invisible.

What about the economic insecurity of our poorest fellow citizens? Why can't our politics address this? It can't be because everyone has shared the fruits of our recent economic boom. It can't be because the poor don't exist. It must be because they have become invisible. (5)

We need to include that 20% and convince them that they must vote, and once we have voted out this neoconservative government, we need to make sure that our most vulnerable never become invisible again. Neocons want us to believe that our "too generous and unaffordable" social programs must be cut or eliminated and wages must be held down (6) to feed this monster named "economy". Meanwhile, the wealthiest citizens just keep getting wealthier, while they are going through with massive corporate tax cuts, and preaching austerity to everyone else.

And of that 60% in the middle, those who support social programs and demand rights are marginalized. And intellectuals who try to cloud issues with facts are dismissed as "university types" and demonized.

So while we advocate for specific groups, march and demonstrate, we have to remember that we are all in this together. We have a common enemy and as such are allies. Neoconservative governments do not allow dissent, but they cannot ignore 80% of the population.

We keep hearing about Harper's "base", that he is pandering to, but who is this "base"? I suspect that many believe they are voting for the party of Sir John A. and John Diefenbaker, without realizing that if the full agenda of this party is implemented, they too will be thrown into the fire, if we lose our public health care and access to education.

In 1994, speaking on behalf of the National Citizens Coalition, Stephen Harper was discussing the accomplishments of the NCC.

"Universality has been severely reduced: It is virtually dead as a concept in most areas of public policy. The family allowance program has been eliminated and unemployment insurance has been seriously cut back." (6)

He believes that if you are successful, it's because you worked for it, forgetting that things like access to public education and medicare, helped toward that success. And if we allow this to continue, we will end up with a Third World type of societal structure, something that has long been a goal of neoconservatism. It's why they fought so hard to maintain apartheid in South Africa and keep Nelson Mandela in jail.

The Politics of Fear

Harper's former VP when he was president of the National Citizens, Gerry Nicholls, wrote recently that:

"Hate and fear make the world go around. Those are the two emotions you must arouse to mobilize citizens. Why is that? I would venture to say that it’s because they are powerful primal emotions that trigger the fight or flight response. What’s important, though, is that you recognize and harness their power." (7)

Another element to the success of the neoconservative movement is fear. It was no accident that at the G-20, journalists and advocacy groups were targeted by riot police. There was a message there. Cross us and you will pay. He is sending the same message to NGOs who risk losing their funding if they challenge any government decision.

But it is also fear of other forces. Rick Salutin explains:

Since the Second World War, the U.S. economy has been built around what you might call the fear sector: its military-industrial complex, its crime-prison complex and its homeland-terror complex. We're now seeing the first attempt by a Canadian government to follow this model.

... The Harper government is clearly impressed. They don't seem to mind big government, if they can tax and spend in the fear sector. So they've expanded our military budget and just announced a $9-billion (or maybe $16-billion) purchase of 65 U.S. jets we'll have to find some use for. They're increasing the prison population through U.S.-style sentencing laws and planning "major construction initiatives" that will boost (sorry) corrections costs by 43 per cent. On homeland security, there's that amazing $1.2-billion spent at the G20.

But it's a hard sell. Canadians will have to be persuaded to shift more money from a stretched health-care system to the fear sector. The benefits here aren't as obvious. For buying those jets, all our firms get is the right to bid on U.S contracts. Lotsa luck. Mostly, though, there's the fear culture that you need for a fear sector. (8)

So we need to cut through all this. Some suggest that we should study the tactics of Karl Rove and emulate them, but I don't agree. I hate divisive politics and I don't think those tactics help anyone. They just turn people off.

We need to mobilize the 2/3 of Canadians who don't support the Harper regime, and educate those of the 1/3, who believe they are supporting the Canadian Conservative tradition.

There are several grassroots attempting to do that, including:

Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament

Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper

Canadians Demanding a Full Public Inquiry in to the G-20

Canadians for a Liberal-NDP-Green partnership NOW!! (If you like the idea of a coalition. I prefer a Liberal government with the NDP as official opposition, but would definitely be on board with a coalition if that's what it takes)

Catch 22 Harper Conservatives

I'm going to end with one of my favourite John Lennon songs to get us in the mood. I share it often, but am sharing it again, because .. well, this is my blog and I love John Lennon.



Sources

1. Open for Business, Closed to People: Introduction, By Diana Ralph, Fernwood, 1997, ISBN: 1895686733, Pg. 15

2. What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It? By Philip E. Agre, Polaris, August 2004

3. The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda, By: David Welch, Routledge, 1993, ISBN 0-203-93014-2

4. The Rights Revolution: CBC Massey Lectures, By Michael Ignatieff, Anansi Books, 2000, ISBN: 978-0-88784-762-2, Pg. 20

5. Comes the Revolution: Waiting for the Pendulum to Swing Back, By E. Finn, Canadian Forum, August 1995

6. Will the real Stephen Harper please stand up? A citizen’s guide to comparing election campaign promises to deeply held beliefs, By Murray Dobbin, January 10, 2006

7. The Trudeau Empire Has Fallen and It Can’t Get Up! Why now is the time for the Canadian conservative movement to win the War of Ideas, By Gerry Nicholls, December 3, 2008

8. Canadian government adopts America's fear economy, By Rick Salutin, Rabble, July 23, 2010

A Deceptive Democracy: Guy Giorno and Cardboard Cutouts

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

"I notice one provision of this bill; it's the only new provision, and this is dangerous. Some of you who have been around this House for a while will know this, and some in the cabinet must be concerned. The new provision eliminates the policy and priorities board of cabinet, effectively giving more control of government decision-making to the Premier's office. Well, we know who that means. That means Guy Giorno's got more power ...." James Bradly MPP St. Catherines, 1998 (1)

I started reading the book Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, and it was like getting hit between the eyes with a brick.

Where had I heard this story before?

Well of course. They were describing Guy Giorno and Mike Harris. The criticisms that Americans had about the Rove-Bush duo were the same ones that were heard about the Giorno-Harris duo. But even more alarming, they are now the same criticisms of the Giorno-Harper duo. The only difference is that up until a few weeks ago, we didn't realize how much power Guy Giorno had.

Stephen Harper may not be a dictator after all. He's a cardboard cutout made to look prime ministerial. That's why he doesn't talk to us because if you got too close, you'd realize there's nothing there. He's an illusion.

And all this time, the media has been calling him a brilliant strategist, which never really fit. He's always been more an attack dog, than a thinker. Just like Mike Harris.

And reading a bit of the official transcripts from that session of the Ontario legislature, was like deja vu. How did we miss this? Giorno is not centralizing power for Stephen Harper. He's centralizing it for himself.

We need to be concerned about this, because he is not an elected official, and all of his actions are not based on what's good for the country, but how to get his cardboard cutout reelected. Next election we have to make sure that Canadians know who they are really voting for. A corporate attorney, who has been in more executive washrooms than Heidi Fleiss.

So no more lurking in the shadows. We need to make his, the most visible face in the country.

That Session of the Ontario Legislature Reveals Even More

What was being debated when Bradley realized that it meant Giorno would have even more power, was Bill 25, "An Act to reduce red tape by amending or repealing certain Acts and by enacting two new Acts."

This was the birth of the "Red Tape Commission" that really meant no more bothersome inspections. And the end of those bothersome inspections, resulted in the Walkerton Water Tragedy.

This is a story about fanaticism and death. The dead are buried in fresh graves in the cemeteries of Walkerton, Ontario. The fanatics are very much alive, going about their daily business in the Premier's office and the cabinet room in Queen's Park ... Investigators are still working to determine exactly how deadly E. coli 0157 bacteria found their way into Walkerton's water in May, causing at least seven and perhaps 11 deaths, and leaving hundreds seriously ill. The story of the Walkerton tragedy is not, however, primarily a story about Walkerton at all. This was no unforeseen accident. It was the predictable - and predicted - result of deliberate policy decisions which gravely compromised the safety of Ontario's drinking water. The broader story of Walkerton is the story of repeated warnings, from many different experts, officials, and agencies, that the Harris government's environmental cutbacks were putting public health in jeopardy. And it is the story of how those warnings were dismissed ... (2)

And guess what was in the last budget? Yep. Canada now has a "Red Tape Commission". It will be like playing Russian Roulette every time you eat or drink anything.

Drawing inspiration from the way British Columbia and Ontario streamlined regulations, Flaherty announced the creation of a new Red Tape Reduction Commission, with a mandate to reduce the paper burden of complying with federal rules on small business in particular. Less regulation and freer trade are both well within Flaherty’s comfort zone. (3)

Now back to Ontario in 1998 (following emphasis mine):

The policy and priorities board of cabinet is the most important committee of cabinet. It is the committee that deals with the priorities for the government and the general policymaking for the government. Now that's taken out of the hands of the cabinet and I think that's going into the hands of Guy Giorno and the whiz kids in the back rooms of the Conservative Party ...

... Of course those who are still hopeful of getting into cabinet interject in favour of Guy Giorno and that crew, because they know that Guy is going to be checking off checkmarks for who's getting into cabinet ... I tell my friend from Brampton that if he wants to get into the cabinet, like his colleague, he should be good to Guy Giorno and Deb Hutton*. Deb's now been with the Tory caucus 10 years; celebrating her 33rd birthday in mid-August. She has all kinds of power.

All these people advise, so what I'm saying to the members of the Conservative caucus who want into the cabinet is, yes, be nice to Mike, laugh very loudly at the jokes, lead the applause when Mike speaks and gives an answer that zaps the opposition, but the most important thing is to ingratiate yourself with Guy Giorno and the whiz kids, because they will be advising the Premier on who goes into the cabinet, who gets shuffled one way or another ... you all thought he was being honest with you, being true to you, and now you find out that Guy Giorno is going to have even more power and all those people, the whiz kids in the back room, are going to have even more power. Some of them get elevated to the cabinet. I see that my friend Tony Clement, the member for Brampton South, has less power now that he's in the cabinet than he had when he was a whiz kid ... (1)

The bill passed and among the 'ayes' were Jim Flaherty, John Baird and Tony Clement, while those "Whiz Kids" continued to whiz all over Ontario for a few more years. We're still trying to scrub off the stains.

Footnotes:

*Deb Hutton is married to Tim Hudak, the new Ontario neoconservative leader, who's being groomed by Mike Harris.

Sources:

1. Official Records for June 23, 1998, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Discussion Bill 25

2. Contamination: The Poisonous Legacy of Ontario's Environmental Cutbacks, By Ulli Diemer, June 2000

3. BUDGET 2010: Unable to spend big or whack taxes . . .Flaherty cuts tariffs and red tape, By John Geddes, Macleans, March 4, 2010

Deceptive Democracy: He Floats Like a Butterfly and Stings Like a Bee

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.” Joseph Goebbels

I'm still amazed that after more than four years, the media will still begin a story on the Harper government's unprecedented secrecy and control, with the notion that he came to power on a promise of accountability and an open government.

I agree that he came to power on that promise. But anyone who believes that there was ever any intention of it ever being more than a promise, obviously doesn't understand Stephen Harper at all. And anyone in the media still believing that he was sincere, have clearly chosen the wrong profession.

Soon after winning his seat in Calgary West in 2006, and as party leader being given an opportunity in a "first past the post" system, to act as Prime Minister; Stephen Harper put up a "quiet" sign. Everyone from his elected caucus to public servants were told to "shush". This prompted the media, not only in Canada, but elsewhere; to sound the alarm.

In April of 2006, Time magazine published an article: Controlling the Message, discussing the enormous lengths that our government was going to, just to avoid talking to the press, whose very jobs are supposed to be the antithesis of "shush."

"Canadians should be worried when they see the government trying to exert such an unprecedented level of control."

Yes we should have been worried. And despite the fact that the situation has only worsened, meaning we now have more to worry about, we are still not screaming from the roof tops. Why is that?

Two words: Guy Giorno.

The master manipulator who led former Ontario Premier Mike Harris through seven years of the most incompetent, corrupt, authoritarian and damaging administrations the province had ever seen. I still have nightmares.

In 2000, Ryerson Press wrote a lengthy article about Harris's control of the media.

TV newsmakers need vivid images to illustrate their stories. Harris's Tories, easily the most communications-savvy provincial government this country has ever seen, are delighted to oblige — on their terms. They dodge negative coverage at every chance and will go to ridiculous lengths — giving preferential treatment to friendly reporters, shutting out critical ones and staging elaborate, unrelated events — to avoid it.

That was pure Giorno.

So when Stephen Harper decided to hire him in May of 2008, I knew that it wasn't to improve relations with the media, as indicated by the PMO; but to create ways to manipulate them. They became his keyboard.

This man who performs his duties in the shadows, would create an enigma. The illusion of a prime minister, who would not have to assume the role of a moderate leader, but simply be given the tools to play one for the camera. And as crazy as it sounds, it worked.

But he also endorsed something else far more important to the future success of a man who has made a religion out of avoiding us. The art of deception.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” Joseph Goebbels

After the 2008 election, when the Reform-Conservatives were returned to power, rather than creating an economic update, that would include initiatives to steer us through the recession, they went on the attack. They waged war against women, unions and the opposition.

But it backfired.

The opposition parties formed a coalition government, fully prepared with a budget and a plan. Giorno didn't see this one coming, though members of Harper's caucus did. " Just call him Fall-Guy Giorno.

As aghast Conservative party insiders watch their government teeter on the brink of defeat, Guy Giorno, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff, is, fairly or unfairly, coming in for a share of the blame for the ideologically driven gambit that could cost the Conservatives government.

"This has Guy's fingerprints all over it," said one senior Conservative, in reference to the explosive measure to strip political parties of their public funding that was contained in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's economic statement Thursday.

And yet despite the fact that this coalition was only different from Stephen Harper's 2004 attempt, in that it didn't include the Bloc as part of the actual coalition, what happened?

They told a "lie big enough" and "kept repeating it", until eventually people came to believe it. Over and over they hammered a simple message with a few key words. "Traitors", "coup", "unconstitutional". And even though we sensed that somehow it wasn't right, it won the day. The coalition, with the help of a well tuned "keyboard", was forced to back down.

The same is happening with the Afghan detainee issue. They never go off message. "Our brave soldiers" .... "Our troops are above reproach" ... "there is no evidence" ..."the opposition" has accused "our" troops of "war crimes".

Even the prorogation, that apparently was engineered by Giorno to eliminate the opposition from any future plans, was handled with "big lies" repeated over and over and over and over again. "Routine" "Chretien did it four times" "focus on the economy". Bang, bang, bang.

"It doesn't have to be true, it just has to be plausible." Tom Flanagan

Well this week Girono has had to come out of hiding, sort of, to explain the government's increasing control of information, after a report by information commissioner, Suzanne Legault, who "fears Canadians' right to know is on the verge of being 'totally obliterated'."

When the mystery man had to speak, which was mostly just answering prepared questions from what Don Martin referred to as the "Hallelujah Chorus", he kept repeating the same thing, that his government is "committed to freedom of public information".

And when the laughter died down, he really let loose with a zinger that would have the infamous Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbel rolling (with laughter and pride) in his grave. "Information is the oxygen of democracy."

It's unfortunate that he didn't finish that quote as presented by Nobel-Prize winning Amartya Sen:

"Information is the oxygen of democracy. If people do not know what is happening in their society, if the actions of those who rule them are hidden, then they cannot take a meaningful part in the affairs of that society. But information is not just a necessity for people – it is an essential part of good government. Bad government needs secrecy to survive. It allows inefficiency, wastefulness and corruption to thrive .... Information allows people to scrutinise the actions of a government and is the basis for proper, informed debate of those actions."

Clearly too many words for the lie to be believable.

So please join Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper, because Canadians need oxygen and Guy Giorno needs a real job.

A Deceptive Democracy. Who's Running the Country Anyway?

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Bush is the product. Rove is the marketer. One cannot succeed without the other .... The inherent danger in an arrangement where the political advisor also drives policy is that the consultant is deciding what is best for the next election cycle and his political party while the president needs to be considering what best serves the country beyond election day. These two interests are frequently divergent and in conflict.

The end result is obvious: Karl Rove thinks it, and George W. Bush does it. That's the way it works. And it works well. Rove's political strategies are steering administration decisions on domestic issues and foreign policy. Karl Rove's political calculations have proved more often right than wrong and, for a president interested in reelection, a formula that sways a constituency or adds electoral votes is something he cannot afford to ignore. (1)

This relationship left Rove's biographers to point out: Karl Rove has posed a new and disturbing question for American voters and their republic. Who really runs this country? (2)

When Guy Giorno, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, made a rare public appearance recently to testify before a House committee looking into government secrecy, even some veteran Parliament Hill news photographers needed to have him pointed out so they would know which way to aim their lenses.

Giorno’s spotlight-shy style makes him an unfamiliar figure, but the issues he’s intimately caught up in couldn’t be more conspicuous. In the past, critics inside the Conservative party have grumbled that his bad advice led to missteps by Stephen Harper—sparking a public backlash when the Prime Minister prorogued Parliament in January, and bringing the Tories to the brink of defeat in late 2008 when the opposition formed a coalition over the threat of losing their federal subsidies.

On the other hand, senior Tories credit Giorno as a key architect of last year’s budget, and the aggressive marketing of it as “Canada’s Economic Action Plan”—a springboard for the Conservatives’ bounce in the polls this spring ... “People can pick apart and second-guess individual tactical decisions that impact the Ottawa news cycle ... but Giorno has gotten the big things right.”

Sometimes, however, predicting when this week’s tactical decision might turn into next month’s unwelcome big thing is not easy. As a devout Catholic whose faith has never been far from the centre of his politics, Giorno is assumed to have played a role in the government’s decision to ban foreign aid funding for abortions. It was controversial from the outset, but the move has grown to cast a huge shadow over Harper’s bid to make “maternal and child health” in developing countries his signature cause when he hosts the G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville, Ont., and Toronto next month.

Perhaps more than any issue that’s arisen in Giorno’s nearly two years as Harper’s top adviser, outlawing overseas abortion funding threatens to drag him unwillingly toward the centre of media attention. Montreal’s Le Devoir reported a few days ago that an unhappy Harper wants the matter defused before world leaders, many of whom disagree with his stance, arrive in Ontario for the summits. But Giorno is reportedly worried about how Conservative supporters would react to any retreat and is urging Harper to “protect the base.” (3)

"Urging Harper to protect his base"? The job of a Canadian prime minister is not to "protect his base". The job of a Canadian prime minister is to do what's best for Canadians. And to do what is expected from Canadians, not a backroom operative. And yet that's what's happening here.

Guy Girono made the decision to end voter subsidies.

Guy Giorno made the decision to prorogue Parliament.

Guy Giorno was the architect of the budget.

Guy Giorno made the decision to spend millions (and millions, and millions) on campaign style advertising at our expense.

Guy Giorno made the decision to ban foreign aid funding for abortions.

Which begs the question: Who really runs this country?

Sources:

1. Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, By James Moore and Wayne Slater, John Wiley & Sons, 2003, ISBN: 0-471-42327-0, Pg. 11

2. Moore and Slater, 2003, Pg. 17

3. Guy Giorno: national man of mystery: PM’s chief of staff target for blame, but insiders say he gets big things right, by John Geddes, May 31, 2010

Morton Blackwell, Kyle Bristow and Young Americans for Freedom

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

"As long as we, as a society, continue to bury our heads in the sand, hope that all of this nastiness will just go away, ask "can't we all just get along," without getting up off of our apathetic asses, without turning off the damned TV, without allowing ourselves to be duped and hoodwinked by our so-called leaders - we are about as useless as windshield wipers on a cat's ass." Nicole Nichols

I love the above quote from an American blogger who is one of several tracking a new youth movement, that is being legitimized by the Republican Party in the U.S. and the Conservative Party in Canada.

It has been getting very little media attention, especially here, as they are all being treated as isolated incidents. Yet most can be traced to two places. The Leadership Institute under Morton Blackwell and it's Canadian counterpart, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, who are both training political activists. Karl Rove and Rob Anders graduated from Blackwell's school, so that gives you some idea of what they teach.

But more than simply rabble rousing, many are becoming increasingly racist, sexist and virulently homophobic. Morton Blackwell is also a founding member of the Council for National Policy and of course Preston Manning from the Manning Centre is the founder of the Reform Party. His name is being tossed around as our next Governor General. A BIG mistake!

In the book, The Colour of Democracy, Racism in Canadian Society, the authors point to the Reform Party in particular. After suggesting that the (neo-Nazi) Heritage Front* is not as big a threat since they are small in number, and "...can to a certain extent be ignored ... such thinking is also evident in the doctrines of the Reform Party, who won a substantial number of votes in the federal election of 1993 and who hold 52 seats in Parliament." (1) One of those 52 seats, was held by a man named Stephen Harper.

Young Americans for Freedom

Young Americans for Freedom was created in 1960, as one of the many anti-Communist organizations of the period, and aligned themselves with William F. Buckley. They opposed the civil rights movement, and, in 1962, gave their first annual Freedom Award to segregationist South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond. Though they supported Nixon they were never really partisan, preferring to simply be called conservative and later adopted libertarian policies.

On college campuses they were referred to as the 'Shock Troops', often challenging anti-war protesters, and as the new right wing, counterbalanced the "hippies" who were more prevalent during the period. YAFers wore ties and had trimmed haircuts, but their lapel pins were B-52 bombers in the shape of a peace symbol. Their activism was mostly described as "dirty tricks" and they dubbed themselves the "prankster truth squad".

In 1970 a member of the Young Republicans, who had been touring colleges in Illinois, met up with the YAFs and sought their help with a little scheme. A man by the name of Alan Dixon was running as a Democrat for state treasurer, and was planning a gala event to officially open his campaign office in Chicago.

The Young Republican, using a false name, posed as a supporter to gain access to the campaign headquarters, where he ran off with some official letterhead. With the help of YAF, he printed up 1,000 invitations for the grand opening, giving the correct time and place but adding "Free beer, free food, girls, and a good time for nothing".

They then fanned out and distributed the invitations to a hippie commune, at a rock concert, in a soup kitchen and among the drunks in the Chicago bowery. On the night of the event as guests all dressed to the nines were mingling with the upper class, van loads of the unwashed arrived, destroying the evening for many.

Dixon still won, but when George Herbert Bush, then on the Republican National Committee, got wind of it, he told the Young Republican to immediately go and apologize. But according to Dixon, Karl Rove never showed. It would not be the last time he discredited the party, and under another George Bush, a stunt like that would be child's play.

Kyle Bristow and Young Americans for Freedom

The photo to the left is of Kyle Bristow and Ron Paul. Bristow would become the leader of Young Americans for Freedom at Michigan State University, as the group, which had not been heard much of for some time, now took a new direction.

The Leadership Institute of Morton Blackwell and the Republican National Committee have taken them over and there are now more 20 YAF organizations on campuses across the country, most of them started in the past five years by Leadership Institute-trained activists.

One of them is Kyle Bristow who interned there for a summer, and instead of simple pranks, his activism included organizing a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day” a “Straight Power” demonstration to protest a proposed local civil rights ordinance protecting gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals from discrimination, with signs that read “End Faggotry” and “Go Back in the Closet.” He also administered two racist online groups — “True American Patriot” and “Jobs a White Man Won’t Do”.

He also arranged to have controversial figures like Paul Fromm, British National Party Chairman Nick Griffin, and other white supremacists speak on campus. And while such events drew protest, as he knew they would,Kyle believes all press coverage is good coverage, and while 10,000 people who read what he has to say will be disgusted, one or two will be intrigued. He’s using the media coverage to reach those one or two people at a time and that’s what concerns me about YAF, because what he’s articulating is dangerous.” (2)

But there is another reason for this, which I've mentioned in my other posts on the subject. It's something called 'Controlled Controversy' that is taught at Blackwell's training school. When you look at the headlines or heaven forbid, watch Fox (I've only seen the videos on Youtube), the news is always about the reactions, rarely if ever about what caused those reactions. That's how this works. You can get away with anything once you've achieved the reaction you desired in the first place.

Nothing Bristow* or any of the others do, is illegal, but it's troubling, as there is not merely an attempt to shift universities to the right, but also an underlying motivation to make racism, homophobia, etc., acceptable. And though these groups are clearly extreme, the only ones who have been given that handle are the ones who speak out against them.

Another youth group engaged in the same kind of activities, is Youth for Western Civilization, again under the direction of Blackwell's Leadership Institute. They have actually been legitimized by the Conservative Political Action Conference, and debuted there in 2009. Tom Tancredo also helps them out when they need to stir things up. Tancredo was a YAF when he was younger, and is now an outspoken critic of immigration and multiculturalism.

We need to be more diligent and tell university students to watch out for things like this. If their statements or actions are outrageous, they are intended to make you mad, and once you're mad, your reaction becomes the story.

Hate groups are definitely making a comeback in the Right-Wing revolution and are now main-streamed by the Republican/Conservative parties.

Footnotes:

*The Heritage Front belonged to the umbrella group, the Northern Foundation (Stephen Harper was a founding member). Heritage Front leader Wolfgang Droege, was also a member of the Reform Party and was once their Ontario policy chair. He used his members to act as security for Preston Manning when he spoke in Ontario. According to Dr. Debra Chin, Harper himself arranged this.

**Bristow is no longer at MSU but is now considered to be an up and comer in the Republican Party.

Sources:

1. The Colour of Democracy, Racism in Canadian Society, By Frances Henry, Carol Tator, Winston Mattis, and Tim Rees, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995, ISBN: 0-7747-3255-5, Pg. 24

2. Black Hats on Campus, by David Holthouse, Southern Poverty Law Center, January 16, 2008

3. ‘Right-Wing Youth’ Group Debuts At CPAC, by David Holthouse, Hate on Campus, February 26, 2009