Robo-Dialing.. the Theft of Democracy, and the Threat to Conservatism

Freedom..  built to last?

Be wary, fellow conservatives.

After years of toiling in the trenches, amid years and decades of Liberal destruction of Canada, now that Stephen Harper has achieved his elusive majority, Canada and Conservatives are at risk.

At risk of destruction by Conservatives ourselves.

Most conservatives, I believe, have an abiding faith in the concept of freedom - true freedom.

Not some co-opted Utopian vision of freedom where as long as you do everything the government tells you to do, we will all be happy - that is the liberal social-engineering model.

And a conservative - a TRUE conservative would never abide that, would they?

They wouldn't take away the power of a free and open judiciary and, instead, create a statist regime where all decisions are the stuff of statutory direction, would they?

They wouldn't suggest, for a moment, that the secret to a safe society is an empowered police state where privacy becomes a thing of the past, where police can arrest and spy on the citizenry at will, all in the name of some suggested "perfect society" where we are all safe - and if we aren't hiding anything, why worry?

That couldn't be considered a "conservative" agenda, could it?

Surely, after enduring a never-ending parade of Liberal social-engineering projects, in a noble, but ignorant and misguided effort at creating Canatopia we couldn't possibly be so ignorant as to embark upon the same misguided and ignorant effort as Conservatives, could we?

I fear we are.

And it's not, contrary to what Liberals would suggest, some "secret agenda" or devious effort to hurt society - it's for the exact same (some might say "noble") reasons that the Liberals introduced the Gun Registry and that Ontario introduced universal daycare.

To make things better.

To achieve their vision of utopia.

And - sadly - if we are not careful, and do not exhibit some modicum of hubris - we, as conservatives, will fall into the same trap.  Taking the reigns of government, and assuming that now having power, we ought to exercise it.

To make laws to make things better - by exerting greater control by the state over the individual.

But - and here's the thing of it - as Conservatives we should be ashamed. 

The Liberals never denied their goals, their philosophy - that by the study of social relationships, they believe they can modify human behavior through a combination of forced education and coercion to make society, well, "perfect".  So, then - for a Liberal to engage in social engineering is expected.

What to make of Conservatives doing the same thing?

And worse, this past week, what to make of people involved with the conservatives undertaking misleading phone-calling efforts to lie to electors hoping to achieve electoral victory through subterfuge and deceit.

As Conservatives, not only should we not seek to defend that apparent effort to undermine free democracy, we should root it out, and seek to make an example of the staffer - and if it comes to it - the MP or MP's who were aware of the effort.

Because no only does it undermine our party - it undermines free democracy.

We cannot allow the Conservative Party of Canada to creep into some ugly version of Nixon Republicanism where the "ends justify the means". 

If we are going to have regard to the American experience, I might suggest going back a little farther into the Republican family tree to Abraham Lincoln.  Imagine that - a Republican, a conservative, who fought for freedom and liberty of all people.

And who understood, intimately, that the enemy which ultimately posed a risk to western freedom did not come without - it came, potentially, from within.

As Lincoln stated in his Lyceum Address:

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Our most fearsome enemy isn't Al Quaeda, it isn't some army of child pornographers, it isn't the drug cartels - it's US.  It is the misguided idea that freedom should be bartered away for safety.  That dirty political dealings, whether Conservative phone-dialing scams, or Liberal ad-scams, are justified to give us power to "do good".  That if we build enough jails and pass strong enough sentences, we'll be safer.  That if we just take away guns, there will be no more murder.  That if we allow the state to take care of our children, we will have no racism, no sexism, no hate.  That if we ban all drinking and driving there will be no traffic accidents causing injury and death.  That if we just pass enough laws and give the state enough control.. we'll be happier.

Pretty arrogant and pretty simple-minded.

Liberals can't help themselves.

But as Conservatives, we should know better.