Indeed Italy has done a
wonderful thing in disrupting a Steve Bannon extreme right project aimed at
converting the world to his white power conservatism.
Bannon and a British
Conservative acolyte named Benjamin Harnwell had leased an 800-year-old monastery in Collepardo 70 kilometres east of Rome.
They planned to use it as an Academy of the Judeo-Christian West, “a modern
gladiator school” that strengthens the underpinnings of the Judeo-Christian western
world.
Translation:
gladiators who will join the war against Muslim advancement.
Really cool. A
return to the Crusades to save the holy West from the Muslims. Exactly what the
world wants and needs – more hatred, more violence and less diversity.
The Italian
culture ministry, listening to protest groups, has cancelled the lease, citing
irregularities. The protest groups noted that the monastery had a history of
improving humanity: During the Middle Ages, monks conducted scientific research
there and cultivated 2,500 types of plants for medicinal purposes.
In case you might have
forgotten the name, Bannon is Donald Trump’s former chief election and White
House strategist and promoter of Breitbart News, an alt-right news and opinion
distributor. Some critics call him a crypto-fascist.
Harnwell, 43,
isn’t known for much except being a helper to conservative thinkers and
leaders.
Steve Bannon
is not stupid as a stone, like some of the folks he hangs out with. Actually,
he is considered brilliant, able to turn mind and hand to any number of intelligent
undertakings. His gladiator school definitely is not one of them.
The last thing
our world needs now is more extreme right-wing politics. In fact, the last
thing we need is any extremism, right or left. We are stuffed with that junk,
especially in our political systems.
Hyper-partisan
politics, saturated with mad dog conservatism and mad cat liberalism, are
damaging the ability to govern in places that have been models of democracy. In
Canadian federal, provincial, and municipal politics, we are just not getting done
the things that need doing.
Listening,
considering other views and compromising for the common good are missing too
often in today’s politics.
In the U.S.
the situation is out of control. That
country has entered a stage of devolution that could turn to outright civil war.
It is no longer the “United” States.
Canada is
rolling along a similar road. Party leadership controls everything, from what
its members say in Parliament to vetoing a local riding’s selection of a
candidate. For instance, Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould, once among
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s best cabinet ministers, have been barred from
running for the Liberals in this fall’s election because they did not accept
the party line on the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
Instead of
tossing out anyone who disagrees with them, political leaders should be
inviting challenging opinions. They need to take a lesson from Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln,
facing the greatest crisis in U.S. history, did not surround himself with yes
people – friends and allies who would support blindly any policy that he
proposed. He gathered ambitious people with conflicting personalities who would
question and challenge and in the end do things that benefitted the people, not
just the party.
Lincoln’s
approach is documented in the 2005 book Team
of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by historian Doris
Kearns Goodwin. Our political leaders should read it.
We, the
citizens, need to reconsider our political party system. It is rotting at its
core. It puts party before principle and
party before the people.
What’s needed
is for us all to move to the calmer centre where we can sit and discuss,
thoughtfully and without yelling at each other, solutions to our problems.
Certainly what
we do not need are gladiator schools to harden our political beliefs. We need more
intelligent political discussions and debate that explore options. We need
ideas – whether they come from thinkers on the left or right of the political
spectrum.
Politicians
need to listen to and respect the thoughts of all parties. They need to find
common ground in that thinking and be willing to compromise to achieve
solutions that will be good for the people, not the political party.
A country in
which politicians cannot work together for its people is a country doomed to
fall apart.
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