Opinion: You know the type: the ferociously pious who think that their political viewpoint is right and the other side evil. Here’s what they miss about America.
I hate presidential election years. They bring out the worst in everyone. Worse yet, they reveal in stark detail all those Americans who have made politics their religion.
These are the real handmaidens in our political culture, the genuine cultists. And they come in multitudes.
If you’re not one of them, you no doubt know the type – the ferociously pious. They are among your friends, your co-workers, your family members. And there are just as many on the left as there are on the right.
They believe with messianic certitude that their side is right and the other side is evil.
They own the truth and in owning the truth they own morality. They’re always on the right side of history.
What they can’t perceive is their own ignorance as they flash it to the world. They’ve pinned a note on their sleeve that says, “Damned Fool.”
Neither side has a lock on the truth
You cannot live in a free society without a contest of ideas. If there is no contest of ideas your society is not free.
America is still a free society and thus ideas collide endlessly with one another. Some would call this polarizing. I would call it essential.
A free society is always drawing and re-drawing the line of true center. There is always a left and always a right. (And in America there is always the unfathomably daft, such as Kanye West or Mazie Hirono or Sean Penn.)
But if you are a conservative and believe Fox News is the Oracle of Delphi, you don’t know your own history. You don’t know how conservatives were wrong about civil rights and industrial pollution and women’s rights.
If you’re a liberal and believe The New York Times editorial page is holy writ, you don’t know your history. You don’t know how liberals once embraced Stalin, galloped into Vietnam and blew up the judicial filibuster rule that will hoist them on their own petard when Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed.
Both sides have been spectacularly wrong. Neither side owns the truth.
We all need someone to tell us we’re wrong
And thank God that in our free society, we can still push back hard against each other’s bad ideas.
I’m a conservative who views liberals as the guarantors of my freedom. If they’re not there, if my fellow citizens all walk in lockstep with me, I’m not living in a free country.
Recently my nephew told me about the very civil discussions he has with a liberal co-worker. They don’t agree on much, he said, but their conversations are good.
I told him that’s a gift.
We all need people who aren’t afraid to tell us we’re full of it. When we were college students, my older sister and mentor, Barbara, gave me some great advice. She said, “You need to marry someone who won’t take any of your crap.” I did, and we laugh about it to this day.
There are some in this country who are so certain they are right, they want to cut off dissent. They would crush freedom of expression so that their point of view is preeminent.
We’re seeing it in academia, in journalism, in Big Tech, in the Fortune 500. They believe their conception of truth must run unchallenged so society can move to that gold horizon.
What they miss is that the gold is here right now. It is our freedom. It is our freedom to disagree.
Destroy that and you’ll reach a gold horizon, alright, one that burns with the fire of vengeance.
Phil Boas is editorial page editor of The Arizona Republic. He can be reached at 602-444-8292 or phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
