Election time, kids!

Okay so it is season of the twitch again, stateside.

There is a saying here  in the True North, that when 'the US shivers, we sneeze'. No, it's not about winters - It means that usually the two countries are connected by the same political maladies.
What ails the US, ails Canada too – and of course the reverse. This time it looks like the sneeze may come BEFORE the shiver. Hey! It happens.

Here in Canada we just endured yet ANOTHER election, and this just may be a foreshadow of what is about to happen in the USA. Sure the playing field is different, in Canada we have several official parties rather than two; but the underlying sentiment seems to be the same.

The history lesson:

In Canada we have just endured a decades long Liberal (party) rule. It was a BIG government rule under the Liberals. A rule infused with race politics, PC appointments, internationalist agendas, outsourcing, and LOADS of entitlements and vote buying corruption a la Acorn.
Canadians grew sick of it only after seeing it fail time and again, and MISERABLY.
That Liberal government finally crashed under a no confidence vote (got fired by parliament) in 2005. The sitting Prime Minister, RH Paul Martin, resigned his party post and the elections brought in a Conservative/Tory (party) government, as a minority.
This win was accomplish by a re-fusion of two parties: the Reform Party, and the Progressive Conservatives. Both were 'break-aways' or offshoots from the old Tory Conservative Party of Canada. In 2005 these two groups buried their differences and reunited to reform the Tories under the leadership of a certain Stephen Harper – now our PM.
In the years that followed the Liberals, then the 'official opposition' attempted to bring down parliament 3 times, and did so successfully- twice.
The first time was a no confidence motion that failed, and resulted in another minority win by the Conservatives. It was a non result and cost hundreds of millions of tax dollars.
The second was yet another political farce.
The opposition led by the Liberals and supported by the NDP (hard left socialist workers party) and the Bloc Quebec separatists/secessionists, attempted to hold the PM in 'contempt of parliament' for passing a rather boring and sensible budget. Again it cost hundreds of millions. This time, though, it blew up in their faces.
In a massive slide, the Tory party won a majority and the Liberals were literally destroyed. Reduced to a handful of seats (like cong. reps) and lost their position as 'official opposition' to the NDP. So did the Bloc! It seems the Liberals and Separatists made a deal with the socialist red-devil, and he came to collect.
Now the NDP is the official opposition for the first time ever, and the Tories rule with a super majority AND the Senate. The REAL right rules, and the REAL left sits in opposition. We have reversed course, it seems. I, for one, applaud that reversal.

The comparison:
Okay...so where the HELL am I going with this?
Why, 2012 of course! The next year will be ANOTHER media circus election! This time, thankfully, I am only a spectator...sort of. This election will be in the USA, our neighbours and trade partners. So it will affect us, both politically and news-wise.
Here's what I am wondering: Could we see a similar shift to the right in US politics as a BACKLASH to the uber-liberal and isolationist policies of the Obama administration? Could it be the promises made and broken (nanny state stuff) that could be enough to disenfranchise the centralist voters? And what about the Tea Party movement?
Obviously, Mr Obama has only had four years as opposed to a decade or more, and obviously the congress has already begun to swing right. So the parallel is not complete, but there is some BIG similarities.

First, as to the time, Canada's political scene is slow and steady, the US is much faster in it's shifts. So what could take decades in Canada may take only years in the US. That is not a value judgement, just an observation. It cuts both ways – can be good and bad for both. Swings and slides.
So the 'decades to years' part is not that big of a deal. Secondly the ideology of BIG government is present in both our past Liberal governments and the current US admin. In both nations BIG government is frowned upon by the population, who seem to be inclined toward individual freedoms rather than 'group identity' politics.
Worse still, BIG government is unerringly arrogant government, and like some dictator in a bunker, convinces itself it is loved and strong. It becomes blind to opposition.
That takes me to the final aspect, known here in Canada politically as Race Politics.
This I have to note, and I apologize if it causes any offence – I am simply being frank.

In Canada, the general sentiment on Mr Obama's election was he was elected on R&R: rhetoric and race. Many people, including myself, feel that Mr Obama's ethnicity HELPED him gain office as vast swaths of the US population voted for him out of racial loyalties and many more from post colonial guilt, sometimes called 'white guilt' – they feel bad about the slavery industry over 100 years ago. On the racial loyalties, can we imagine the media FRENZY if statistics showing 80%+ all white voters voted for the white candidate in FIRST ever election with a black candidate? The question is rhetorical, of course. On the white guilt witness the various 'ghetto' and 'thug' BS our kids,(of ALL races) are being fed to get a sense of just how far it goes.
Controversial? You bet ya! (Palin quote? NAH! She ripped us off)
The rhetoric was standard pablum: Change etc and really bears no real resemblance to policy or even reality, and so I will leave that for another post...maybe.
Anyway, it seems many folks in the States are waking up to this perceived image, if not taking that position themselves. It is still 'in the closet' and spoken in hushed tones, but it seems it is becoming an acknowledged fact that Mr Obama's title of the first Black President is being eclipsed by his image as the first RACIAL president – that is a leader who ran and rules on racial principals.

If there is one thing the US and Canada share, at least presently, it is a distaste for racial politics. Could this be the Achilles heal of the new-left in the USA? Could an alliance (or fusion) between the Republicans and Tea Party provide the voter momentum? Could the arrogance, BIG government policies, and racial tone of the current President be enough to counter his charisma (??) and rhetoric?
I hope so. As a neighbour, and often times friend, to the USA I would like to see steadier and less polarized minds prevail.
Good luck in 2012, USA!