Two bellwether elections on the global scene this week hold the key to overthrowing the Republicans in 2006 and beginning the impeachment proceedings of Bush and Cheney.
1-The Conservative Victory in Canada
Don't mistake the new minority-led government of the Conservative Party in Canada as being a lurch to the right like we've seen in the United States. No, the Conservative victory was an anti-Liberal Party vote, a punishment by Canadian voters for the corruption and scandal of the Liberal Party:
Stephen Harper very well knows that he does not have a mandate for his conservative and pro-American policies. His party won more seats because many Canadians were turned off by the scandals of the liberals and the corruption. This can at best be called an anti-liberal mandate rather than a pro-conservative mandate.
The Conservative victory in Canada was slim, but propelled by the disdain for corruption that tainted the Liberal Party. Canadians held their nose while voting for an alternative. The parallel we have here is that both parties in Congress are polling poorly right now, but the
GOP is polling worse than the Democrats.
Tangentially, American conservatives should find no joy in the Conservative's victory:
Stephen Harper, elected Monday as prime minister, warned the United States on Thursday to back off from its challenge of Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters that are fast thawing from global warming.
In the first news conference since his election, Harper upbraided the U.S. ambassador for asserting that the icy polar regions, including the legendary Northwest Passage, are international waters.
Canada claims that its archipelago of some 16,000 islands makes that region Canadian territory.
"The United States defends its sovereignty. The Canadian government will defend our sovereignty," Harper said. "It's the Canadian people we get our mandate from, not the ambassador of the United States."
Harper recognizes the trouble his minority government will have holding power if he is perceived as a Bush lapdog; Bush is widely despised in Canada.
2-The victory of Hamas in Palestine
Even Hamas was surprised by the extent of its victory this week. Palestinians gave Hamas a majority government that has no need to forge relationships with other political parties. The reason behind Hamas' rout of Fatah?
In one of the most free and fair elections in the Arab world, and with a remarkably high turnout, Palestinian voters altered the political map of the Middle East. The result of their democratic undertaking is that Hamas will soon begin the task of forming a new Palestinian government. This political earthquake, while no less stunning, has been a long time in the making. For years, there has been growing discontent among Palestinians with Fatah's corrupt and ineffective governance. In going to the polls, many voters were expressing their frustration with the ruling party's failure to deliver peace, implement reforms, improve living conditions or free the Palestinians from their shackles of poverty and unemployment. By casting votes for Hamas, many voters were hitting back at Fatah for its failures, rather than expressing their support for the Islamist party.
Again, the Palestinians distaste for corruption in the Fatah government helped propel Hamas to a majority government.
In the United States, the GOP's positioning of itself as the party of reform contributed to legislative ascendancy in 1994. Their capture of the presidency in 2000 is illegitimate, I believe, so I won't use that as an example we can learn from.
But these two elections in Canada and Palestine hold a key lesson for Democrats aspiring to take back the legislature in 2006 and I think Dean sees it as well: the Republican Culture of Corruption must be a key electoral issue. The GOP's only strong point is national security, that's it. They recognize gay hating is becoming less useful as a tool to drive voters to the polls; witness the multitude of state wide drives to position child molestors as the new boogeyman (believe me, I'm not minimizing their negative impact on society, just recognizing that the GOP has found their new object of the 2 minutes hate).
We in the blogosphere have been doing a good job calling bullshit on the mainstream media. We need to continue that effort and give cover to the Dems as they propogate the Corrupt GOP meme.