THE "BEWILDERED HERD " VOTE TODAY

This week's copy of the Woolwich Observer is now on-line so I can include a link to two of their Opinion pieces in my posting. The two pieces are "Our View/Editorial "Cynical about the process, we don't bother to vote"" followed by "His View/Steve Kannon "Politics is all about preventing the bewildered herd from actually having a say"". Both of these opinions by the senior staff/management of the Woolwich Observer are incredibly jaded, incredibly negative and incredibly disturbing.

Firstly I'm going to give evidence (hopefully proof by this evening's vote tally) that the "bewildered herd " does have a say. I believe, as do all the polls and the current premier, that the public will throw out a stale, corrupt and way past their best before date, Liberal Party today here in Ontario. That's the good news.

Here's the bad news. I believe that the Merlihan Empire (W. Observer) plus Steve Kannon are essentially correct in both their Opinion pieces. All three parties and in fact the party system itself is inherently corrupt. O.K. so they didn't say that directly, I did. What they are telling us is that our current system of democracy is a sham. Essentially we can vote out the bums today only to vote in different bums. All three front running parties have vested interests backing them. Steve clarifies that the corporate interests presumably backing both the Liberals and Conservatives are worse than the "meddling" unions backing the NDP. I tend to agree while holding my nose in regards to the self-interest long on display by the Teachers' unions. That said the public service unions also do very well by governments/parties primarily to secure their votes come election time. The self righteousness of these union members in justifying their wages and benefits wouldn't sting so much if the rest of us with lesser wages and benefits didn't have to pay for their superior working conditions. And please spare me the sanctimonious crap about only the best and brightest work in government.

All that said, employees wherever are not the bad guys. The first Editorial states that graft, corruption and incompetence abound. That refers to the backers and lobbyists of the three parties and the incompetence includes both municipal bureaucracies and boardrooms of multinationals. The graft and corruption refers to the monied elites who are the backers primarily of the Conservatives and Liberals. The politicians whom they support are "...happy with a self-serving system that allows unfettered access to the cookie jar for themselves and their financial backers."

Both these Editorials/Opinion pieces are a wake-up call. They are worthy of serious study. That is unlikely however as most of us would rather read the sports scores or watch the Blue Jays or the NBA finals on television versus really sitting down and thinking about serious things. Things that will affect your children's and grandchildren's lives.