From Reaganomics to Rogernomics: The New Zealand Invasion

Two events would take place in 1984, that would change the course of Canadian politics for a very long time.

One was on July 26 in New Zealand, when the Labour Party came to power under David Lange, and he would name as his finance minister, Roger Owen Douglas.

Douglas had a long history with the Party. Both his father and brother had been elected members of parliament, and he himself had served since 1969.

The other occurred on September 17, when Martin Brian Mulroney would win the largest majority in Canadian history, under the banner of the Progressive Conservatives.

These two seemingly different events, would have a profound effect on the career of a future politician: Stephen Joseph Harper.

Harper's Early Political Career

Apparently while growing up in Toronto, Stephen Harper's family regularly discussed politics, so when he moved to Calgary he opted to become involved. At the time he was dating a girl, Cynthia Williams, and they decided to volunteer in the offices of Jim Hawkes, Progressive Conservative MP for Calgary West.

"At the (town hall) meeting they were among the few young people in attendance ... Steve in particular was disgusted with the Liberal government ...
My recall is that he did not know very much about the organized political party aspect of politics ... he had concerns about the policy part of politics. They (Steve and Cynthia) joined the association. Then the next thing I knew, they were working within my riding association as volunteers, and members of the executive." (1)

Harper and his girlfriend would help out with Hawke's campaign and recruited many young members from the University of Calgary, where he was studying economics. One of those was a young man named John Weissenberger, who introduced him to the neo-conservative policies of William F. Buckley.

After the PC victory, Harper joined Jim Hawkes in Ottawa as his legislative assistant, working on UI reform (UI, Unemployment Insurance was the forerunner to EI), that never materialized. He soon became disillusioned, stating that Mulroney did not have the nerve to make the necessary "tough choices" and returned to school in Calgary. In a later speech at the founding of the Reform Party, Harper would call for an end to "... government financial involvement in the unemployment insurance system..." (2)

Western Canada played a huge role in Mulroney's electoral success, based on their anger over the National Energy Program.

The NEP, introduced in 1980, was designed to protect Canada's natural resources from foreign investors, and to ensure that all Canadians could purchase oil at reasonable prices. However, 5 out 0f 7 oil companies in the west were owned by Americans, so the backlash was loud and immediate. These large multinational interests, were also backed by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a man who would be a huge inspiration to Harper throughout his career.

Another founding member of the Reform Party, was Ted Byfield; owner of the Alberta Report. To give some sense of Western anger, he wrote in a column:

"In the course of the conflict between the Reagan administration and Ottawa, we Albertans are expected as loyal Canadians to cheer the victory of Mr. Trudeau and his thug government. Some of us will find this very hard. We will wave the flag, of course. But deep in our hearts we will be hoping that the Americans whip the hell out of him." (2)

Roger Douglas and a New Labour Party

Though the Labour Party had always been left wing, the new Prime Minister David Lange, had caught the Libertarian bug, after viewing the radical changes made by Ronald Reagan. He became committed to the ideological framework of the 'Chicago school', that produced heavy weights like Paul Wolfovitz and Milton Friedman, Reagan's economic advisor.

The 1984 transition was no ordinary change of government. In common with its northern hemisphere relatives in Britain and America, New Zealand's Labour ... coalition (including organized business, ruling parties, and key state agencies)launched assaults upon the entire state structure, seeking no less than its basic transformation ... the political machine had to be "captured", the technocrats "empowered", and the new regime "embedded" so that it could not be
easily reversed. (3)

The Chicago school was more than just about monetary reform, but a complete philosophical approach to governing, developed by a man named Leo Strauss, who would become the father of the neoconservative movement.

Leo Strauss meets Ronald Reagan, meets Roger Douglas and Canada; to paraphrase Ted Byfield; was on the road to getting the hell whipped out of it.

Footnotes:

1. Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada by William Johnson ISBN 0-7710 4350-3, 2005, Pg. 14

2. Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Author: Trevor Harrison Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, pg. 60

3. "The New Zealand Experiment: A Canadian Perspective", By Peter Clancy, Electronic Journal of Radical Organizational Theory, June 1996.

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Continuation:

* Lies and Videotape Help to Pave Canada's Road to Neoconservatism

* Roger Douglas and "Economic Miracles" That Failed

* Brian Mulroney, Roger Douglas and a United Front

* Ralph Klein Takes Care of Some "Unfinished Business"

* Roger Douglas Tells Stephen Harper and Preston Manning Not to Blink

* How Roger Douglas Became a Friend of Science

* Roger Douglas and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

* The Fraser Institute, Roger Douglas and Revisionist History

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Exaggerated Fear Where the Real Danger is Panic

The above is part six of the award winning BBC documentary; Power of Nightmares.

From two men, who decades ago had a vision of a corrupt society based on liberalism; the modern day ideologies of Christian extremism and Islamic extremism, have been spawned.

Neoconservatism that demanded a great myth, fueled by religious fervour, and unbridled patriotism; has become a very powerful force.

It is a new force in Canada though. The Harper government is the first to govern under the concept of an elite group, whose goal is simply to control the ignorant masses, while pursuing an agenda where our interests come last; if they make the radar at all.

Will it score it a victory or will Canadians finally realize that the 'big myth' was the notion that a movement of reform to create a corporate theocracy, that began in Depression Era Alberta; represents Conservatism in Canada.

The Tory party that was started by Sir John A. MacDonald disbanded in 2003. Will it start up again? I hope so.

In 2004, Stephen Harper gave a speech to the right-wing Civitas Society:

The state should take a more activist role in policing social norms and values, Harper told the assembled conservatives. To achieve this goal, social and economic conservatives must reunite as they have in the U.S., where evangelical Christians and business rule in an unholy alliance. Red Tories must be jettisoned from the party, he said, and alliances forged with ethnic and immigrant communities who currently vote Liberal but espouse traditional family values. This was the successful strategy counselled by the neocons under Ronald Reagan to pull conservative Democrats into the Republican tent.

Movement towards the goal must be "incremental," he said, so the public won't be spooked.

We need the public to get spooked, not by fantasy enemies, but by the real threat that this neoconservative movement imposes.

How Darkest Nightmares Become All Powerful

Above is the fifth part of an award winning documentary Power of Nightmares. The six part series neatly outlines the history of the neoconservative movement that helped to create our current Reform-Conservative government under Stephen Harper.

A growing 'Truth' movement has been slowly unravelling just what happened on 9/11 and the resulting Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

And as many people now realize, the War on Terror is against a phantom enemy. And the same people who fabricated the Soviet threat, engineered this latest horror.

It gave the neoconservative movement a huge boost.

But what it has also done, is sparked an idea in the minds of young Islam men, that America is truly evil, and it may now be up to them to eradicate an enemy that not only threatens their nations, but also their religion.

But where will this battle between phantom "Good and Evil" forces end?

Will we in the West see the destructive nature of the neconservatives, fuelled by the Religious Right; and seek a peaceful end to a struggle that emerged from the minds of mortals?

I hope so, because far too many innocent people have been killed for an ideology based on fraud.

Osama Bin Laden died in December of 2001, going to his grave denying any involvement in the attacks. He only gave money to small groups of militants who plotted the overthrow of governments in the Arab world. They were not organized. At least not organized in the way that they were portrayed.

Al Qaeda never existed. It was a phantom, and I think it's time we quit chasing ghosts.

Creating Fantasy Enemies Could Lead to Self Destruction

The above is part four of the award winning BBC documentary: Power of Nightmares.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, and the mistaken belief that it was the result of American actions, the neoconservative movement needed to create a new phantom enemy.

This came ready made in Saddam Hussein, but George Bush Sr., while he fought against Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, had no desire to attack Iraq based on a personal vendetta.

Paul Wolfovitz would have to wait until his son, who had no moral compass, or desire for moderation; would assume power.

Bill Clinton Becomes the New Fantasy of the Neocons

Without an external threat to exploit, the neocons decided to challenge an enemy from within, and turned their attention to destroying Bill Clinton.

He was the epitome of everything their leader, Leo Strauss, had warned them of. He was a Liberal and therefore responsible for the country's moral decay.

And they found a willing ally in David Brock and the American Spectator magazine, that went about fabricating one scandal after another. Brock has since come clean about his involvement, and is no longer a supporter of the insanity of this extreme-right. In fact he has written two books on the subject: Blinded by the Right and The Republican Noise Machine, and has founded a group Media Matters for America, dedicated to "comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."

But despite the fact that every single scandal was a complete lie, Kenneth Starr, with the right-wing Federalist Society, went on the attack.

The Neocons had passed a motion at their 1997 conference to find grounds to impeach Bill Clinton. One invited speaker at this conference was a man by the name of Stephen Joseph Harper.

But despite their best efforts, Clinton was not impeached, further angering the Straussians, who really believed the country was going to hell in a hand basket. And they had the wacky Moral Majority, to relay that message.

Paul Weyrich, an influential molder of social-conservative opinion, wrote his followers that the public's disinclination to throw Bill Clinton out of office reflected "the collapse of the culture."

... Weyrich, who says he was the one who invented the phrase moral majority, has concluded from the recent unpleasantness that people who believe what he believes are no longer in the majority, and that their only choice is to drop out of a culture that has become an "ever wider sewer." (1)

But as journalist Calvin Trillin points out:

The Moral Majority was never a majority. A majority of Americans are unwilling to have Paul Weyrich or anybody else dictate to them what is moral and righteous in personal life. In 1992, when the morals police and gay bashers seemed in ascendancy at the Republican National Convention, the public response was so negative that George Bush had to spend the first couple of weeks of the campaign backpedaling. (1)

Meanwhile, in the Middle East; the radical elements of Islam, like their American moral majority counterparts; also blamed western liberalism for the corruption of their society and were determined to do something about it.

Things were about to get real ugly, real fast.

Footnotes:

1. Corruption of the Jean Pool, Time Magazine, by Calvin Trillin, March 08, 1999

Freedom Fighters and Powerful Myths

"We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth . . . Support for freedom fighters is self-defense." --President Reagan, in the State of the Union, February 1985 (1)

In Part three of the award winning BBC documentary; Power of Nightmares, we learn how devastating the so-called threat of Soviet aggression was. The neoconservative Reagan Administration, created this myth and used it to justify their idea of 'spreading democracy'. It was chaotic and brutal.

The Reagan Doctrine proclaims overt and unashamed American support for anti- Communist revolution. The grounds are justice, necessity and democratic tradition.

Justice, said the President in his Feb. 16 radio address, because these revolutionaries are "fighting for an end to tyranny." Necessity, said Secretary of State George Shultz in a subsequent address in San Francisco, because if these "freedom fighters" are defeated, their countries will be irrevocably lost behind an Iron Curtain of Soviet domination. And democratic tradition, said the President, because to support "our brothers" in revolution is to continue--"in Afghanistan, in Ethiopia, Cambodia, Angola . . . (and) Nicaragua"--200 years of American support for "Simon Bolivar . . . the Polish patriots, the French Resistance and others seeking freedom." (1)

And though Ronald Reagan took credit for the fall of the Soviet Union, he really had little to do with it. Their wounds were self inflicted.

This documentary is important because it helps to explain the rise of our own neoconservative movement. Stephen Harper was a huge fan of Ronald Reagan, whose administration created the most homeless people in the history of the United States.

This of course will not bother Harper at all. Leo Strauss, the father of the movement, dismisses us as the Ignorant Masses, who are too stupid to think for ourselves, so we must be guided by a powerful elite.

When the Reform Party was first created, it sold itself as a populist party, but most members at the time declared that it was the 'Calgary Clique' that made all the decisions, while they were merely pawns.

Freedom Fighters and Religious Fervour

Just as the neoconservative followers of Leo Strauss latched onto the Christian extremists, the followers of his counterpart that inspired the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb, took on the Islamic fundamentalists, giving both sides a holy purpose.

When Ronald Reagan decided to throw financial support to the 'freedom fighter's' in Afghanistan, it empowered this radical group led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, whose uncle had introduced him to the teachings of Qutb.

And while Osama Bin Laden, a member of the Saudi royal family, initially fought with a moderate army of Taliban, he would eventually join Zawahiri.

And Ronald Reagan was so grateful to the Taliban for helping to make America's corporate elite a lot of money that he named a day after them.

Proclamation 5034—Afghanistan Day, 1983
By the President of the United States of America, 21 March 1983

The tragedy of Afghanistan continues as the valiant and courageous Afghan freedom fighters [The Taliban] persevere in standing up against the brutal power of the Soviet invasion and occupation. The Afghan people are struggling to reclaim their freedom, which was taken from them when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979.

In this three-year period the Soviet Union has been unable to subjugate Afghanistan. The Soviet forces are pitted against an extraordinary people who, in their determination to preserve the character of their ancient land, have organized an effective and still spreading country-wide resistance. The resistance of the Afghan freedom fighters is an example to all the world of the invincibility of the ideals we in this country hold most dear, the ideals of freedom and independence.

We must also recognize that the sacrifices required to maintain this resistance are very high. Millions have gone into exile as refugees. We will probably never know the numbers of people killed and maimed, poisoned and gased, of the homes that have been destroyed, and of the lives that have been shattered and stricken with grief. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us as Americans to reflect on the events in Afghanistan, to think about the agony which these brave people bear, and to maintain our condemnation of the continuing Soviet occupation.

Our observance again this year of Afghanistan Day on March 21, the Afghan New Year, will recall for all the world America's unflagging sympathy for a determined people, its support for their refugees and commitment to achieving a political settlement for Afghanistan which will free that country from tyranny's yoke.
The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 65, has designated March 21, 1983 as Afghanistan Day and has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of that day.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate March 21, 1983 as Afghanistan Day.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventh. Ronald Reagan (2)

I don't think they celebrate Taliban Day now, and they are no longer considered to be 'Freedom Fighters'.

But I wonder if Stephen Harper has ever called Reagan 'Taliban Ron'? Not likely.

Footnotes:

1. Essay: The Reagan Doctrine, Time Magazine, By Charles Krauthammer, April 1, 1985

2. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Proclamation 5034—Afghanistan Day, March 21, 1983

The Price of Peace and Freedom is Chaos and Oppression

In part two of the award winning BBC documentary: Power of Nightmares, that chronicles the rise of the neoconservative movement; we learn more of the fabricated threat of the Soviet Union and the rise of corporate controlled foreign policy.

We also see how the Religious Right then entered the fray, to provide the much needed religious fervour, that Leo Strauss claimed was necessary to achieve their goals.

It's important to get an idea of the history of neoconservatism, since the Harper government emerged from this movement. And while they were able to build on the theocracy created by William "Bible Bill" Aberhart, and maintained by Ernest Manning; they also intertwine continuously with their U.S. counterparts.

Not So Clear But Omnipresent Danger

Continuing the notion that the Soviet Union was planning a nuclear attack on the U.S., Ronald Reagan established the Committee on the Present Danger ... (CPD) with the goal of creating a prolonged arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, to generate huge profits for a handful of the corporate elite.

Reagan was able to convince Congress to provide increased funding for the military, as he began a mission to "spread democracy" around the world, to ward off a perceived communist threat.

The head of the CIA, William Casey used a book by Michael Leeden; 'Terror Network', to justify various military actions. Michael Ledeen's book was actually based on false information, as part of a propaganda scheme initiated by Donald Rumsfeld, as seen in part one of Power of Nightmares.

Jerry Wayne wrote a book on this: Peddlers of crisis: the Committee on the Present Danger and the politics of Fear. Excerpts can be read here. And another on the subject, Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy, by Robert Kagan, can be purchased here.

Candi Crider wrote a paper, History Repeats Itself Clear and Present Danger, which can be read here. I didn't want to get into this too much, since I'm more concerned with our own government, but I will add that William Casey, Michael Ledeen and George Bush Sr. were all involved with Ronald Reagan's election campaign.

But this so-called spreading of democracy, involved things like plotting coups, kidnapping leaders and providing arms to factions who overthrew their own governments, paving the way for American interests. And of course, one of these little ventures was Afghanistan.

And in true neoconservative fashion, since America is now getting out of the whole "spreading democracy" thing, the Harper government is jumping in head first. Michael Allen from the University of California, and editor of Democracy Digest, wrote a piece in December entitled: The D-word out of favor? Don’t tell the Canadians.

Canada is poised to set up a new democracy assistance organization, based on the experience and structures of existing foundations, but reflecting distinctively Canadian characteristics and priorities. A proposal has been tabled in the House of Commons, with legislation likely to follow next month, to form a Canadian Centre for Advancing Democracy, funded by an annual parliamentary appropriation of $30-70 million.

Many people are wondering why Flaherty's latest budget included money for new helicopters, and increased military spending, when we will be leaving Afghanistan next year. Well wonder no more. It's for our new "coup" business. You can read more here.

Enter Ayman al-Zawahiri and the Moral Majority

As Egypt was becoming increasingly westernized, religious factions in the country were protesting American influence, and what they viewed as moral decay. The Religious Right, then called the Moral Majority, already had a prominent place in the White House, with a view to changing society at large.

But while Egypt was predominantly a Muslim country, their Religious Right was also looking to change society at large.

In September of 1981, Time magazine reported:

Concerned by rising militancy among Islamic fundamentalists who object to his secular and pro-Western policies, Sadat has launched a crackdown on dissidents of all persuasions. Over the past two weeks, more than 1,600 of the regime's most vocal opponents—Islamic and Christian militants, political activists, lawyers, journalists, professors—have been rounded up and imprisoned, to stand trial beginning this week. The charges: fomenting sectarian sedition, undermining stability, or simply violating the measure Sadat pushed through last year, known as the "Law of Shame," that makes it illegal to propagate rumors damaging to the state. Fifteen religious societies have been disbanded, virtually all dissenting publications have been closed down, independent mosques have been "nationalized," and Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Christian Church has been exiled to a desert monastery.

Sadat, with his usual candor, called the wave of arrests a "purge." It was also one of the riskiest gambles he has taken during his eleven years in power ....

One of the men rounded up and imprisoned was Ayan Zawaine, more commonly known as Ayman al-Zawahiri, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, and reportedly a "lieutenant" to the late Osama bin Laden.

Zawahiri came from an upper middle class family and was a doctor and a scholar. But as a young man he fell under the influence of an uncle, Mahfouz Azzam, who had been a student and then lifelong follower of radical Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb, as mentioned in part one.

Anwar Sadat would be assassinated on October 6, 1981.

Footnotes:

1. Egypt: Democracy with a Bite, Time Magazine, By William E. Smith; Nathaniel Harrison; Robert C Wurmstedt/Cairo, September 21, 1981

Leo Strauss, Sayyid Qutb and Creating the Big Myth

The above video is Part one of six, from the award winning BBC documentary: Power of Nightmares.

In it they attempt to connect the recent struggles between Christian extremism and Islamic fundamentalism, to two men.

The Egyptian intellectual Sayyid Qutb, who is believed to be the founder of the current terrorist network, including Al Qaeda; and Leo Strauss, the German political philosopher who was the man behind the neoconservative movement, that includes the Harper government.

I don't think it's quite that cut and dry, however. There were many contributing factors, on both sides. But one thing is clear: religious extremism is fueling both sides.

What I did find interesting from the video though, was Donald Rumsfeld's role in creating the fear around the possibility of a nuclear attack by the Soviets, during that Nixon administration. His arguments sound eerily like those he made to suggest that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Leo Strauss and Creating the Big Myth

Both Leo Strauss and Sayyid Quth, were profoundly affected by what they perceived to be the moral decay of society, and blamed it on liberalization. And both men set out to find a solution.

But the solutions they found, ended up being far worse than the original problem, because ultimately they validated barbarity; the end result of religious fervour and too much power.

And for Straussians, they also created a regime that necessitated extreme secrecy if they had any hope of maintaining what he called the 'Big Myth'.

It's hardly surprising then why Strauss is so popular in an administration obsessed with secrecy, especially when it comes to matters of foreign policy. Not only did Strauss have few qualms about using deception in politics, he saw it as a necessity ... Strauss believed that societies should be hierarchical – divided between an elite who should lead, and the masses who should follow.

... According to Shadia Drury, who teaches politics at the University of Calgary, Strauss believed that "those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right – the right of the superior to rule over the inferior."This dichotomy requires "perpetual deception" between the rulers and the ruled, according to Drury. Robert Locke, another Strauss analyst says,"The people are told what they need to know and no more." (1)

And is this not what we are seeing from the Harper Regime? We are all on a need to know basis, and while his government is proving to be perhaps the most corrupt in Canadian history, this 'elite' leader struts around like he hasn't a care in the world, treating us to photo-ops and edited video, paid for by the taxpayer.

And the trick to creating this wall of secrecy, was also inspired by the founder of Harper's party, William Aberhart, who learned his skills from Adolph Hitler. And like Aberhart's, the Harper government has created a culture of fear.

Before Stephen Harper seized power, Donald Gutstein wrote of the "noble lie."

What do close advisors to Stephen Harper and George W. Bush have in common? They reflect the disturbing teachings of Leo Strauss, the German-Jewish émigré who spawned the neoconservative movement. Strauss, who died in 1973, believed in the inherent inequality of humanity. Most people, he famously taught, are too stupid to make informed decisions about their political affairs. Elite philosophers must decide on affairs of state for us.

... A ruling elite of political philosophers must make those decisions because it is the only group smart enough. It must resort to deception -- Strauss's "noble lie" -- to protect citizens from themselves ... philosopher Jeet Heer recently wrote in the Globe and Mail. "For Strauss, the art of concealment and secrecy was among the greatest legacies of antiquity."

It's interesting that Paul Wolfowitz, who became "a major architect of President Bush's Iraq policy", was a student of Strauss. He has certainly mastered the big lie. It is also worth noting that Wolfowitz is "... currently a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. David Frum is also a member.

Time Magazine has suggested that violent factions of Islam, were the result of the followers of Sayyid Qutb, teaming up with Saudi militants being sent "... off to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan." As a result, they "... believed that the time for jihad against infidels and the neocolonialist West was now." (3)

Again, a bit too simplified, but one thing is for certain. Both sides couldn't be more wrong.

Footnotes:

1. Leo Strauss' Philosophy of Deception, Jim Lobe, May 19, 2003

2. Harper, Bush Share Roots in Controversial Philosophy, Donald Gutstein, The Tyee, November 29, 2005

3. Wahhabism: Toxic Faith? By Bruce Crumley/Paris; David Van Biema, Time Magazine, September 15, 2003