Sure glad that week is done!

Much as I tried to find the good in the week of the October Federal and Municipal elections, I have to admit I’m really glad it’s over.

Even those of us obsessed by the cacophony of democratic politics know when we’ve had too much. A tell-tale sign is when rising earlier in the morning than is in keeping with the needs of body and mind, one finds himself checking to see if any new polling data are available.

Good grief, Charlie Brown! This symptom is only slightly better than rising too early to check one’s daily standing in a hockey or home run pool. Alas, symptoms notwithstanding, there remains something important and noble in the democratic polis and we are doing ourselves a great disservice if we shut it off.

One strategy of political reinvigoration is to begin addressing the negative, making room for the positive in its wake. First of the negative features that made that week so discouraging for many of us was the degree to which character assassination has taken hold in democratic politics.

Sure, Harper’s decision to destroy Dion in this way caused Harper to fall short of a majority and again shooting himself in the foot. The ads made it impossible for us to buy the blue, Father-Knows-Best, sweater he wore in an attempt to re-create his persona. And sure, underlying the fact culture and punishment policy changes cost the party its majority in Quebec was the sense that the Dion ads were an affrontery to the dignity of the Québécois.

But the fact that such dumbed-down nastiness persisted unabated for months and the fact it was carried by the Conservative press with such an apparent insider’s glee remains discouraging, and damaging to us all. Far too often these days a sort of hyper-realism is sold and bought as if it were the truth by those smart enough to know better.

Keeps decent folks out of politics

The turn to nastiness as the heart of politics was also evident in some of our municipal races, to a degree that undermines the sense of community and civic friendship that small-scale democracy can and should achieve.

The politics of nastiness is to democratic politics what torture is to international conflict. It may work in the short run, but the damage it does is never worth the advantage it may appear to provide.

The tactic of character assassination in democratic life keeps decent folks out of politics and it especially discourages the greater participation in leadership of many thoughtful progressive women and the idealistic young, without whom we would all be lost.

The fact so few women have been elected to our municipal governments this time was a huge disappointment. Coupled with a low participation rate, these failings of our democracy were especially poignant in the year Nova Scotians recognized our early history of representative democracy. Indeed, the considerable sum of money spent to celebrate our 250th year appears to have been, for the most part, very poorly spent: badly conceived, poorly directed and delivered ineffectively.

Looking south for inspiration

That all this discouragement transpires as we move more deeply into economic crisis is the stuff of which nightmares are made. While it is too simplistic to believe that a few hanging chads in the vote count in Florida eight years ago made the difference, neo-conservative ideology has finally revealed itself, just as the “Coalition of the Willing’s” aggressive response to international terrorism has failed. That those who are paying for these policies are not those who designed them is simply shameful.

It is tempting to hope that from the ashes of these failures will rise again a democratic politics and an economy that meets the noble ends and dignity to which they are open. And it is why, despite the mountain of challenges that Barak Obama and his team face, many of us are turning our attention south in the coming week.

If Obama can begin to heal a democratic polity and economy as deeply troubled as the Americans have become, perhaps we will be able to turn ours around before the depths of despair take too strong a hold.