In honor of the federal election in Canada, I would suggest people listen to a series of lectures by Stacy Taylor called 'A Christian view of government and politics'

Quotes and comments;

Lecture #3. Pluratist democracy

- Taylor presents a model of a free society that depends on many independent realms or spheres in society; i.e. family, church, business, state, individual, education, etc.

- He quoted something by one of the popes (Pius 11)? to the effect ''it's wrong for a larger body to appropriate a task to itself that could be done (just as well?) by a smaller body...''

- In my opinion, this is the foundation of liberty. We are enslaved to the extent this happens; and free to the extent it does happen. In our day the larger body (the state) is taking over everything; including many things that could be done by smaller bodies. (eg. churches, families, associations, etc.)

My own view of the current political scene;

"So this is Christmas....'' (John Lennon's song always reminds me of politics; where the State is seen as Father Christmas giving out presents to a flock of children.)

- today is the big 'what goodies can I vote myself' day in Canada. At election time we see people at their worst; where egomania runs rampant, and people fall over themselves trying to steal from everyone. I loathe the whole process; from the lies and bully tactics of politicians, with toddler stupid ads, to the obscenity of signs covering every square foot of ground, to the repellent ads that try to persuade clueless teenagers to vote, to efforts to get the senile elderly out to vote, to get recent immigrants out to vote (despite the fact they have no idea what's going on) to the endless lies and deceit, to the dumbing down of every issue, to the total absence of intelligent discussion, to the power grubbing, to people selling out liberty for more socialism, to the triumph of the state over all other spheres of life, etc. I loathe the whole process.

Is this all that bothers me about elections and politics? Not by a long shot.

- I detest all the polling we see in elections. In my opinion polls should be banned, as there are no legitimate reasons for them to exist, and they're only used to manipulate voters.
- how about egomaniacs parading around pretending to care for people and for the country, when their only care is for themselves, about their lust for money and power.
- I'm sick of the 'media' telling us who is going to win before the election, and then afterwards criticizing people for not voting!
- I'm sick of being bombarded with election commercials up to a few minutes before the election. (Aren't people to even have a day to sift through all the lies they've been told? Aren't people supposed to take time to think about the issues? I guess not. The political hucksters keep harassing people until the last second, trying to drive them by emotions in the intended direction.)
- And finally; I'll vote today, but not because I have any meaningful choice. I'll vote to try and foil the plans of a particular party; a party whose former leader worked hard to solicit campaign funds from known terrorist groups. (And the media said nothing against him.) I wouldn't consider myself human if I didn't try in some slight way to defeat such an evil human being. (Who is still featured as the major spokesman for said party by the way, and is still trying to get his sad, sorry ass elected.)
- the worst part of this story is that no one (No one) in the party has ever condemned this social monster for what he did. (Nor have the tools of the Socialist media; said media owned by billionaire communists.)

Notes;
1. I'm not saying I'm against one vote per person, only that it's both absurd and disingenuous to encourage the ignorant to vote. This is like getting a 'second opinion' on a proposed surgery from a brick layer, and then giving the opinions equal weight. (Let's face it, the only reason pols do this is because they think they can profit from it, not because they're concerned that people exercise their rights.)