A great many people yesterday voted for people they don’t really believe in. They voted for Obama, or Romney, because they felt there was no other choice compared to the danger of the unknown, or the risk of a too-familiar vote split to let a kleptocrat win.
I’m not certain what forces and situations need to come together to kick off a political shift like the kind seen after Brian Mulroney left the Progressive Conservatives to scrape up two seats in Parliament in 1993, but that sort of party-reputation-gutting hasn’t befallen the Democrats yet. It hasn’t even plagued the Republicans in the form of a consequence they’ll react to meaningfully. They can still taste power that is only two or four years away (instead of the monumental shift in priorities required).
No, the GOP will continue to nominate male, blustery speakers who prattle on about rape and abortion because those subjects divide and excite passions in some voters. And they will later either bring America into the theological state they crave, or fail utterly and implode their party like a male Kim Campbell.
And in Canada, Conservatives are plagued with the same lack of well-built and well-funded political options. The merger of the Reform Party and Progressive Conservative Party left right-wing voters with a single, mindless, power machine and no clean escape. The lack of Proportional Representation in our elections left us vulnerable to illegal robocall schemes to suppress votes, and pressed similar parties to merge when they should not have done so in the interest of democracy. Now we must worry about the left wing parties merging into one, instead of co-operating to bring us electoral reform first.
What would it take for Conservatives to toss the current bunch of crooks and cheaters under the bus and decide to build a new party that could have some respectability? Paper evidence isn’t enough. Audio recording of a bribe is not enough. Audio recording of an election crime isn’t enough. Why does power motivate millions to ignore obvious crimes and vote anyway for the Obamas and Harpers of the world?
Our democracies fail because they favour well organized [criminal] professional politicians and power seekers over less organized, good people. Our electoral systems are broken, and we use broken/defective/corruptible techniques instead of improving.
So instead we end up with FIPA:
And Mercer doesn’t stop there with the blunt presentation of our anti-democratic government:
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff 
There is so much corporate media propaganda that keeps voters either confused or vote suppressed. We need a lot more Rick Mercer style humour with a knife twist to turn it around. Ridicule Harper. He is ridiculous…
“The merger of the Reform Party and Progressive Conservative Party.”
It wasn’t a merger. It was a reverse takeover by the arrogant upstart party.
I seriously wonder if you even have a clue sometimes. When you say people had no choice for fear of “the risk of a too-familiar vote split” it seems you are oblivious to the fact that America is a 2 party electoral system. A ‘vote split’ can only occur with a system of 3 or more parties. I know, math is hard.
Perhaps you weren’t paying attention when the Republicans ran Sarah Palin for VP and Michelle Bachmann as a leadership contender. Nikki Haley? Sharron Angle? Christine O’Donnell? How about visible minority Mia Love losing to the racist Democrat machine in Florida? Yah, a white man won… those racists Democrats! As for rape, abortion, binders, big bird, racial tension and every other unimportant Democrat electoral platform subject… we’ll see how important these are when the US economy tanks and unemployment balloons!
In Canada, Conservatives openly and transparently chose the direction of their beliefs, initially Reform through Alliance and Progressive Conservative on to The Conservative Party of Canada. Try to think of it as voices in a beautiful choir. A choir united under a single banner. United under a single leader. United under singular principles and purpose. The choir was so big and popular that EVERY other political party in Canada instantly became redundent. Rather than they themselves undergo a re-evaluation of their beliefs the Lieberals, Green (in the gills), Dipps and Bloc-heads teamed up, with ABSOLUTELY NO consultation from their constituents, their party’s membership, to share power amongst themselves. They wouldn’t keep their integrity and do it under a united banner as conservatives did, rather, they did it Ol’ Boys style with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Ooooppsy! You did mean the GreenLibDipp Blockhead Alliance when you said “pressed similar parties to merge when they should not have done so in the interest of democracy” didn’t you?
Har har har!!! ;)