Monday, April 23, 2007

Authoritarians in waiting

Lately there's been no lack of Lib and Green bloggers trying to vilify Jack Layton and the NDP at every turn - and reality be damned in the effort. But the Blogging Tories have offered a couple of reminders that they're still without equal when it comes to fact-free demonization.

Last weekend, the outrage du jour was that the NDP's reporting of publicly-available documents allegedly constituted "sabotage". And today, the festivities included an attempt to classify Jack Layton's work to build alliances with international leaders as "illegal", "sedition" and "treasonous" - notwithstanding the fact that other opposition politicians, including Stephen Harper in his time on opposition benches, have (quite properly) engaged in similar efforts.

Of course, such overheated rhetoric is usually a sign that a party is doing something right. And indeed the NDP deserves full credit both for holding the Cons accountable, and working to build more effective links abroad. But it's still remarkable how many Con supporters would seem entirely happy to make "existing while NDP" (or presumably any other party which was managing to successfully oppose the Cons) into a capital offence.

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