Read on Twitter
Time for a thread on the latest in the WE scandal ... which mostly developed when I was on holiday and I was honestly hoping to ignore until it went away. So much for that plan.
Anyway, I have a short list of Twitter accounts I watch as representative partisans for each party.+
Anyway, I have a short list of Twitter accounts I watch as representative partisans for each party.+
Not always elected officials. And not always blue checks with a profile. But people I think represent a little representative group of what the true believers for the parties think. Is this scientific? No. But I find it interesting/useful.
And the LPCers are NOT happy today. +
And the LPCers are NOT happy today. +
I'm not gonna name them or link to them, because I don't want to make the thread about them (or surprise them with a bunch of hostile mentions out of nowhere). So I guess you can trust me or not. But yeah, they're not happy. They know this is bad and can't defend it. +
Something I've seen a few times is "disappointment." They're disappointed with the PM. They think this was badly handled. They feel let down by this.
And I find that really, really interesting.
First of all, getting a true partisan to admit they're disappointed is BIG. +
And I find that really, really interesting.
First of all, getting a true partisan to admit they're disappointed is BIG. +
Like, something that would "disappoint" a partisan would *horrify* a normal human being. I don't want to derail my own thread, but there was one incident many years ago I giggle every time I think about. It was during an Ontario PC flareup and one of their partisans had ...
... this reaction that was such a masterpiece of mortified understatement that we should carve it onto a gold plaque, put it onto a space probe and fire it into deep space, where it will outlive us as a monument to the slavish devotion partisan politics demands. +
So yeah. "Disappointment" is big. Especially from some of these true believers.
(Others on my list are just totally silent all of a sudden. Conspicuously so.)
So that's ONE thing I find interesting about this.
But here's the other one. +
(Others on my list are just totally silent all of a sudden. Conspicuously so.)
So that's ONE thing I find interesting about this.
But here's the other one. +
This is going to sound like a partisan attack of my own on PMJT. It's. It's true I haven't voted for the guy, and wouldn't. But I honestly get why others did. I don't share the feeling, but I can rationally understand why someone would.
Here's something I CAN'T do, though. +
Here's something I CAN'T do, though. +
I cannot even begin to understand how anyone who's been paying any attention to PMJT can be in any way surprised or disappointed by this WE story. This is like the generic baseline PMJT fuckup. We could calibrate scientific instruments using this. It's that predictable. +
Like, even if you're someone who's a true Grit, a sincere believer in JT, whom you think is a genuine good PM, not just the best of the options available during the last election, you cannot be surprised by this.
I'm sorry. You just can't be. +
I'm sorry. You just can't be. +
Like let's boil this down to the bare essence.
- PMJT liked some glitzy celebrities who speak in generic platitudes about progressive issues. Check.
- PMJT didn't worry about or never considered the obvious ethical problems with this. Check.
+
- PMJT liked some glitzy celebrities who speak in generic platitudes about progressive issues. Check.
- PMJT didn't worry about or never considered the obvious ethical problems with this. Check.
+
- Extremely little forethought/preparation seems to have gone into this, in favour of just sort of winging it. Check.
- PMJT didn't think he'd get caught and clearly didn't have any real backup comms/political plan in place. Check.
+
- PMJT didn't think he'd get caught and clearly didn't have any real backup comms/political plan in place. Check.
+
- PMJT slow to realize it was coming apart and didn't make use of the intervening time to meaningfully prepare. Check.
- Core of the failure is PMJT thinking, again, that rules — not conventions, but actual written rules — don't apply to him. Check.
+
- Core of the failure is PMJT thinking, again, that rules — not conventions, but actual written rules — don't apply to him. Check.
+
These next ones are very important!
- All the smart people around PMJT are absolutely useless and might as well be orange traffic pylons. Check.
- No apparent willingness or ability among PMO officials to either foresee this or talk PMJT out of it. Check.
+
- All the smart people around PMJT are absolutely useless and might as well be orange traffic pylons. Check.
- No apparent willingness or ability among PMO officials to either foresee this or talk PMJT out of it. Check.
+
Like, sorry, folks, but if you just worked off those few tweets above, where I boil this down to those core things ... I honestly think you could think I was describing, what, like three entirely different scandals by now? Maybe four?
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+
Like, again, to all those Liberal partisans out there who know exactly what I'm talking about and agree but can't say so, like, yeah, I get it. We all operate under restraints. I feel ya. Thoughts and prayers.
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But for the ones who really still have the capacity of being surprised/disappointed when PMJT pulls some stupid shit like this, and when the Big Red Machine and the Party of Laurier sucks it thumb and hums atonally and lets him do it, I really, really don't get that.
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+
So to those disappointed Liberals, a message for you. I don't know if the issue is that your capacity for forgiveness and optimism exceeds mine, or if my intelligence simply exceeds yours. But guys? Stop being surprised and disappointed by this stuff. This is PMJT. +
This is who the guy is. And in 2020, this is also the Liberal party — unable or unwilling to stop him.
If you know this, and accept it, and still decide, for whatever reasons, to support PMJT and the LPC, OK, fair enough. That's democracy and your right. +
If you know this, and accept it, and still decide, for whatever reasons, to support PMJT and the LPC, OK, fair enough. That's democracy and your right. +
But for the love of God, and for the sake of your party and our democracy, stop being surprised. He's not the problem at this point. You are. Either make peace with the fact that your leader and our PM will keep on fucking up like this, BECAUSE THIS IS WHO HE IS, and accept ...
... that the senior LPC leadership is going to keep tolerating it, BECAUSE THAT IS WHO THEY ARE, or stop being disappointed and start saying it's time for a major, major change within your own party.
I've run out of patience for disappointment. You own this now.
Thanks!
-End-
I've run out of patience for disappointment. You own this now.
Thanks!
-End-
