Archive for the ‘Liberals’ Category

Readers Write (April 16): Responses to ‘Seven ways liberals must realign with Middle America’ – Minneapolis Star Tribune

I appreciate the thoughtful approach Doug Berdie utilized in his examination of how liberals might connect with Middle America (Seven ways liberals must realign with Middle America, April 9), but I believe he has overanalyzed the operating dynamic.

For an ever-growing segment of the electorate, a presidential election (and many other political office elections) is nothing more than a pageant in which the candidate who can most convincingly advocate for a given pie-in-the-sky agenda will have the upper hand. The agenda must embrace only the most tried and true clichs and pandering. Once the candidate has established his or her superiority in transferring the excellence of his or her agenda to the public conscience, said candidate becomes the shiny object, and is barring a catastrophic revelation of bestiality or mass murder or some equivalent disqualifying heinous behavior a shoo-in.

Narrowing the discussion to recent presidential elections: 1984 and 1988 shiny object: Ronald Reagan; 1992 and 1996 shiny object: Bill Clinton; 2000 and 2004 no shiny object (elections with no shiny object are often, if not always, close, and the Republican candidate will always win); 2008 and 2012 shiny object: Barack Obama; 2016 special case: Donald Trump was seen both as shiny object to some and viable alternative to a very unshiny object to others, but a net nonshiny object see 2000 and 2004.

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Readers Write (April 16): Responses to 'Seven ways liberals must realign with Middle America' - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Church revival? More liberals are filling Protestant pews. – Christian Science Monitor

April 14, 2017 GREENPOINT, BROOKLYNA year ago, Tammy Rose never imagined shed be active again in church, holding a palm branch with a community of Christians marking the beginning of Holy Week.

For nearly two decades, in fact, she had more or less abandoned the faith, disillusioned by what she saw as a constant focus on conservative social issues and pressing needs for more donations.

But if politics helped drive her away, it is politics that, in some ways, is drawing her back to the fold. And on this sunny Sunday morning at Greenpoint Reformed Church, not too far from the Brooklyn artists collective where she lives, Ms. Rose is beaming as she joins the responsive call to prayer:

Who are we? intones the Rev. Jennifer Aull, the congregations minister for community service. Responding, the congregation says together: We are young and old, gay and straight and in between. We are single and partnered, happy and sad, confused and inspired. We are street smart and college-educated. Some of us cant pay our bills and others have more than enough to share.... We are Gods people. We are the body of Christ.

Like a number of progressive congregations across the country, Greenpoint Reformed has seen both a surge in attendance and a newfound energy within its pews over the past year. Since the rise of Donald Trump to the US presidency, in fact, liberal enclaves have reported something of an awakening.

Hundreds of churches have joined the sanctuary movement to protest the administration's immigration policies since the election, and thousands have begun donating more money to religious groups supporting social justice issues, many report. At liberal seminaries like Union Theological in New York, students and community members have packed into public lectures on the social gospel, standing-room-only crowds that have left administrators stunned.

The call to worship on this Palm Sunday embodied some of the reasons Rose decided to return to church last year. When I visited for the first time last Easter Sunday, I was like, oh my God, these are my people! she says, noting she had been drawn by the rainbow flag and Black Lives Matter banner draping Greenpoint Reformeds front facade. I suddenly felt comfortable in this gang of how can I put it? Everyones a little quirky. I was really happy that there was a place where that diversity could be celebrated.

Yet the congregation also offered something a bit more intangible, says Rose, a playwright and artist with a day job in Manhattans tech industry. Already part of a community of politically-active artists, she is a regular presence at street protests.

But here in a community sharing prayer concerns together, or celebrating a gay couples renewal of their marriage vows, or including children coloring their Easter eggs I come here and I just feel replenished, she says.

The current Trump bump now energizing many progressive congregations, however, may only be a blip on what has been a decades-long decline of liberal Christianity and some of the mainline Protestant denominations that have carried its torch since the early 20th century, many scholars caution.

The social gospel has found its biggest moment of relevance since the Reagan years, says Brett Grainger, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University near Philadelphia. The energy is feeding directly off the current administration's proposed budget cuts, which target the most vulnerable members of society, and its policies on immigration, which rub against the belief that love of the stranger is central to Christian teaching.

But if there is a revival, it's most likely to be temporary, in that it thrives on its antagonism to Trump, Professor Grainger continues.

Liberal Christianity and mainline Protestantism have been contracting for decades, in fact, losing millions of members and the cultural influence it once was able to wield. Mainline Protestant churches, including those in Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Methodist denominations, have lost roughly 5 million adult members since 2007, and now comprise about 15 percent of the US population, according to Pew Research.

Formed in the modernist controversies of the 1920s, liberal Christianity began to demythologize certain teachings like the virgin birth, the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, and the literal meaning of Scripture. In response, conservatives emphasized the traditional fundamentals of Christian doctrine, which eventually gave rise to the term fundamentalism.

At the same time, many liberal congregations began to emphasize the social gospel, which focuses on Jesus ministry to the outcast and poor and the call to Christian service. Indeed, Christian congregations on the left were major players in the Civil Rights movement and the rise of the sanctuary churches movement that supported Central American refugees in the 1980s. Many were also part of the spread of liberation theology, first preached by Central American Catholics in the 1960s, who proclaimed that God primarily identifies with the oppressed and marginalized.

Churches that are channeling this new anti-Trump energy into justice and caregiving issues, theyre not leaving their understanding of the Christian gospel behind, says Bill Leonard, professor of Baptist studies and church history at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. They are saying: This is who we are, we have a history of this, and we cant be silent.

Rev. Ann Kansfield, the minister of proclamation at Greenpoint Reformed, isnt sure how much the congregations recent surge can be attributed to a Trump bump. More people voted for Bernie Sanders in Greenpoint, after all, than any other area of New York City in the Democratic primary last year, and Reverend Kansfield noticed a simmering political energy going back to 2015.

Up to then, the church had plateaued with about 35 adult members. On Sunday, there were more than 60, including children. We were already established as the progressive church in the neighborhood, she says, noting that LGBT inclusion and its soup kitchen and food pantry were its primary ministries. But with this new energy, weve been doing some deciding over who we are and what we do, and what following Jesus should look like in our context.

After many members were abuzz following the Womens March on Washington in January, the congregation put together a social justice task force. Kansfield has been making contacts with consortiums of faith groups mobilizing for progressive causes.

But this is a marathon, not a sprint, says Kansfield, who is also one of the chaplains serving the Fire Department of New York. It would be really easy for us to tire ourselves out with all our spreading and fretting. But how do we actually invest our energy and time and resources to where it will strategically matter?

Attending church is most effective when it is the spiritual engine that drives the rest of the week, she says, the way were going to recharge and refuel for the rest of the week. And that isnt going to be ginormous, but church and the spiritual practices that we share together can provide sustainable, ongoing energy thatll keep you capable of the work of the long game.

Sustaining the current spike in attendance at liberal churches may be difficult, however, given the long-term trend of decline, scholars say.

If we do in fact see an uptick in attendance, it will reflect the fact that liberal Christians are searching for spiritual resources to speak to the sense of despair they feel about the current political direction of the country, says Grainger. What organized religion offers is not only that broader network of support but also the theological reassurance that, even if things aren't going well in the short term, in the longer arc of history, God is in control.

Yet with the religious landscape in the US still in the midst of seismic changes, including the decline of church attendance and the rise of the so-called nones, those who do not affiliate with a religious tradition, a liberal de-emphasis of traditional doctrines and a focus on a social gospel might be attractive.

Professor Leonard at Wake Forest notes that many liberal churches have already developed outreach programs to engage nones in public theology discussions, home study groups, and dinner conversation groups. These endeavors are drawing many individuals back to church, or to church for the first time, he says.

For her part, Rose says she wants to become more involved in Greenpoints ministries.

I usually just go the Sunday services now, she says. But Im thinking more and more about volunteering in the soup kitchen every week. I dont want to come here just to participate in the family Ive found. Now I want to give back to the family.

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Church revival? More liberals are filling Protestant pews. - Christian Science Monitor

Vaughn Palmer: Smarting Liberals try to discredit NDP spending plans – Vancouver Sun

BC Liberal candidate Michael de Jong tried, but not very successfully, to discredit NDP spending plans, writes columnist Vaughn Palmer, who considers the plans more a change in priorities than a massive increase in spending. JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS

VICTORIA When the New Democrats one-upped the B.C. Liberals by announcing they would phase out bridge tolls this week, the governing party responded with a predictable how are you going to pay for that?

Never mind that the Liberals, through 16 years in office, routinely tapped contingency funds and other discretionary sources to pay for their schemes, half-baked and otherwise.

The Liberals were stung by the New Democrats having upstaging news coverage for their own promise of $30 million worth of relief for commuters in the form of a $500 cap on annual tolling payments.

If the New Democrats were going to eliminate a $200-million-a-year source of revenue for the Port Mann and Golden Ears Bridges, they need to provide a full accounting immediately.

Turned out NDP Leader John Horgan and crew were happy to oblige. And the answer, when it came with the release of the party election platform on Thursday, was diabolically clever.

Horgan would finance the elimination of tolls by liquidating the Liberals vaunted prosperity fund.

Or Christy Clarks LNG Fantasy Fund, as the New Democrats put it, not missing an opportunity to stick in the knife over the Liberal failure to deliver on the biggest promise of the last election campaign.

The fund was the intended repository of the proceeds from the three count em three terminals for exporting liquefied natural gas that Clark promised would be running by the end of this decade.

None have got beyond the promise-making stage to date. But that didnt stop the Liberals from cobbling together $500 million worth of discretionary funds from elsewhere in the budget and booking the total to the prosperity fund as if LNG were already a going concern.

Having contrived the LNG version of a Potemkin Village in the government accounts, the Liberals could scarcely deny the money was there to be used for other purposes if a successor government chose to do so.

Thus the Liberal stunt with the prosperity fund would help the New Democrats pay for a populist gesture to commuters angered by the arbitrary application of bridge tolling in B.C.

The New Democrats did not disclose a permanent financing scheme for the elimination of tolls once the prosperity fund is exhausted, as it would be in a few years.

Nor did their platform fully account for other promises like eliminating medical service plan premiums altogether over four years, stopping a projected 42-per-cent increase in auto insurance rates, and freezing B.C. Hydro rates for a year.

Also notable were a couple of dogs that did not bark in the capital plan. The New Democrats are proposing a five-year $7-billion increase in capital spending, on top of projects already announced, as the platform said.

On that basis, Horgan made no move to defund two of the most controversial projects in the existing capital plan, namely the $9-billion Site C dam or the $3.5-billion replacement bridge for the Massey Tunnel.

The gaps, real and perceived, in the NDP budget plan drew protests from Finance Minister Mike de Jong in a briefing for reporters shortly before noon. The usually-on-top-of-his-game de Jong started late and struggled with the numbers. A sign perhaps of having to rely on Liberal campaign staff as opposed to the able public servants in the Ministry of Finance.

He levelled a broad-brush accusation that NDP spending promises would mean massive increases in taxes and deficits and a downgrade in the provinces Triple A credit rating.

Maybe. But at first read the NDP plan did not represent all that massive a shift from the three-year budget the Liberals themselves tabled in February.

Horgan would increase program spending by 1.4 per cent above what the Liberals were projecting for the current financial year, by 2.5 per cent in fiscal 2018 and threeper cent the next year.

Those increases, for the most part, would finance readily defensible priorities including a long overdue increase in social assistance, elimination of interest on student loans, hiring more park rangers and conservation officers, androlling back ferry fares on the smaller routes.

On the paying-for-it side of the ledger, the New Democrats would restore a higher bracket for folks with taxable income in excess of $150,000 a year, boost the corporate tax by a point and impose a special tax on homes deliberately left vacant for speculative purposes.

Their platform also projects returns of almost $700 million over three years from unspecified elimination of government waste and hoped-for economic growth. On the strength of those numbers, the NDP claims the budget would over the three years havesurpluses in the $100-million range, about half the size of what is projected by the Liberals.

But as noted here Thursday, B.C. budgets include significant contingency funds and allowances against downturns in the economic forecast. Those measures of prudence total almost $2 billion over three years in the Liberal budget and fiscal plan and they are retained in the NDP plan as a hedge against the unexpected.

For all the unanswered questions and potential controversies to come, the NDP passed the first test of building an election platform.

To govern is to choose, as saying goes. On Thursday, John Horgan signalled that it is time for some different choices than the ones the B.C. Liberals have been making for the last 16 years.

vpalmer@postmedia.com

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Vaughn Palmer: Smarting Liberals try to discredit NDP spending plans - Vancouver Sun

Scowly Liberals legalize the demon weed – Macleans.ca

Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier, Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Jane Philpott, Minister of Health listen as Parliamentary Secretary Bill Blair responds to a question after announcing the legalization of marijuana during a news conference in Ottawa, Thursday April 13, 2017. (Adrian Wyld/CP)

And now, an edited but faithful reproduction of the background documents the Liberals released with their marijuana bill on Thursday:

strictly strictly restrict strict significant penalties strictly zero tolerance dangers restrict strictly restrict stop criminals strictly restrict punish more severely tougher deaths and accidents risk every day dangers punish more severely oral fluid.

This sets a certain tone.

After reporters were given a few minutes to read the bill, federal officials from, mostly, the Health department were ushered into the National Press Theatre to brief us. One began talking. Whats your name? a few reporters asked. The officials eyes bugged out in terror.

My colleagues reassured him that we would not quote him in print, an assurance that is standard practice in these so-called technical briefings. Weve done this before, one said.

Thus reassured, the official and his colleagues began laying out the details of the pot law, which sets a minimum age for marijuana sales (18 years) and allows for provinces to increase that minimum; caps the number of plants per household at four and the legal height at one metre; and radically increase criminal penalties for providing cannabis to children and for driving while impaired.

Then the nameless officials filed out and the cabinet ministers, whom we could feel free to quote, filed in. Jane Philpott from Health, Jody Wilson-Raybould from Justice, Ralph Goodale fromCentral Casting, and Diane Lebouthillier from Unilingual Francophones.

Perhaps you will find that last joke a little harsh, but Lebouthillier was quick to correct anyone who thought she might be there as Minister of Revenue: the bill does not provide for any tax on the sale of cannabis. She was there as a social worker by training, and as a former secondary-school teacher from the Gasp, where, she informed us sadly, it was easier for too many of her students to get their hands on a reefer of the marihuana than on a cigarette.

The ministers proceeded to lament the scourge of pot. They were led by their not-quite-ministerial colleague Bill Blair, the former Toronto Police Chief who has, in his capacity as a parliamentary secretary with special responsibility for not even remotely messing around, criss-crossed the country looking increasingly stern about this whole pot business. Today is an important day, Blair said. All of his career, hes been trying to protect children. Today was another child-protecting day. It is not our intent to promote the use of this drug, he said, sternly. No kidding.

Goodale at one point sputtered as he tried to find a word for cannabis in the context of its potential transport across international borders: This this this he said, making helpless massing gestures with his hands in front of his face. This product, he managed at last.

Blair said the goal of the legislation was to ensure that henceforth, nobody could get marijuana from some gangster in a stairwell. This suggested that the situation has indeed deteriorated since my high-school days, when my more louche classmates were unable to locate a gangster in any stairwell and had to resort to getting their weed from so-and-sos big brother.

The news conference was well-attended and the ministers time finite, so the event ended before I was able to ask my question. It would have been this: If marijuana is so dangerous to children, to road safety, at the border and as a driver of organized crime why is the government seeking to make its recreational use by adults easier?

Put another way: Given the Liberals body language, the plain meaning of their bill, and every single element of their discourse since 2016, the only part of this bill that makes no senseis the legalization part. They could strictly crack down on all the other dangers and everyday risks, with zero tolerance and harsh penalties up the wazoo, without legalizing anything. And since not one of them said anything resembling this is a great day for personal freedom and the right of adults to exercise choice responsibly, I honestly do not understand why they are legalizing anything.

Lets take it a step further. I believe the only reason the Liberals have tabled this bill is that they promised to, and that they are getting a little heavily-subscribed on broken campaign promises in other domains. I believe everything from Blairs appointment on forward is an expression of contrition for ever opening up this mess. I believe this bill, once passed, will radically increase the amount of police time devoted to measuring the height of plants, policing stairwells for gangsters, administering saliva tests at roadsides, and otherwise fretting over the demon weed. And proportionately less time doing other police work.

Which means this is the first time Ive ever seen a government deliver on a campaign promise while flip-flopping on the policy question at hand.

Its usually at about this point that Liberals get all huffy and say, We always campaigned on tighter regulation. We never meant to make it easier for kids to get marijuana. Well, sort of. Heres the policy resolution that made pot legalization Liberal policy in 2013. And indeed it says regulation blah blah blah children blah blah. But it also proposes an amnesty for people previously convicted of simple possessiona sure sign that the goal of the original proposal was to increase freedom, not further limit it.

I think this bill spends so much time apologizing for its own existence that it is not at all clear why anyone wouldseek to operate within its regime of hard-to-procure, weak product, served with a scowl, instead of continuing to operate within the black market. If this bill becomes law, the overwhelming majority of marijuana sold and consumed in Canada will continue to be sold and consumed illegally. Not a great day at the office for rooms full of ministers and public servants. Campaign promises arent cheap, as those who make them eventually figure out.

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Scowly Liberals legalize the demon weed - Macleans.ca

The vicious rumours at the heart of factional warfare for NSW Liberals – The Sydney Morning Herald

The most intriguing storyon Macquarie Street in recent weeks has been that of the senior government figure allegedly caught in a compromising position in one of Sydney's best known parks.

It's all very NSW politics. Salacious details have travelled like wildfire around media and political circles.

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In October, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull draws laughter from his colleagues after claiming the Liberal Party is not governed by backroom deals. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.

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A detainee has told of his fears as a gunfire rings out at the Manus Island detention centre on Friday evening.

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Former foreign affairs minister Gareth Evans is urging Australia to reduce its dependence on the United States alliance and accept China as a legitimate "global rule maker".

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The Women of Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia publish a controversial video to Facebook wherein the participants appear to legitimise hitting women that are 'sinful' in the context of their interpretation of Islamic tradition.

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There's dissent in the Coalition ranks over the idea for first homebuyers to access their super to get into the housing market.

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Despite two of their children being born in Australia, a Fijian family has been taken into detention and Immigration minister Peter Dutton says they'll he deported.

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The India trade deal is spiked as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull explains why the deal promised by his predecessor isn't going ahead.

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WA Premier Mark McGowan says he is looking at options to deal with the Perth City Council, one of them being dismissing the council.

In October, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull draws laughter from his colleagues after claiming the Liberal Party is not governed by backroom deals. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.

Media organisations have made enquiries that havecome to nothing, strongly indicating it is wholly a fabrication.

Yet it persists propelled by some political operatives talking to journalistswith the attendantdamage to the reputation of the person targeted.

Thiswillingness to push such a damagingstory is being seen as symptomatic of a particular brand of poisonous factionalism in the NSW Liberal Party characterised by an win-at-all costs-attitude and little regard for how much internal damage is done.

It's a style of internal politics the party thought was long behind it.

But last weekend's byelections in the blue ribbon Liberal seats of North Shore and Manly, atwhich the government was belted with huge swings, for some provided more evidence it is back.

The candidates Felicity Wilson and James Griffin were both backed by the moderate, or left, faction.

Wilson narrowly defeated the right's Tim James in a tight preselection, while Griffin easily beat the right's choice, Walter Villatora, who was backed by former prime minister Tony Abbott.

Clearly local issues and the government's unpopular forced council mergersplayed into the results, but so did scandals.

There was also strong evidence that rival factional operativestook aim at the endorsed Liberal candidates particularly Wilson, who Fairfax Media revealed had incorrectly signed a statutory declaration about how long she has lived in the area.

The declaration in the shape of a Liberal party nomination form was distributed to about 200 preselectors and made its way to the media.

The story almost derailed Wilson's campaign, leaving senior Liberal moderates appalled at the prospect that, suicide bomber-like, some in the right faction would be willing to blow up the endorsed Liberal candidate simply because she was not their pick.

All of this should be sounding very loud alarm bells for Premier Gladys Berejiklian who, only a few months into the job, is about to confront the issue of factionalism head on.

With the civil war in the NSW Liberalsshowing no signs of abating, a major convention scheduled for late Julylooms as a critical momentforBerejiklian's2019 election campaign.

The meeting will see all party members invited to thrash out a potential solution to an issue that has caused a deep fissure in the NSW Liberals: whether to change how state and federal candidates are preselected.

The right faction of the Liberal partyhas been pushing hard for a plebiscite system giving all branch members a vote.

But the dominant left and centre right factions favour retaining the present system where preselectionsare decidedby branchrepresentativesand some party officials.

There is a lot of self-interest at play here the left and centre-right run the show under the status quo but they warna shift to plebiscites will lead to rampant branch stacking.

Berejiklian, given her closeness to the left faction, has thus far been assumed to be an opponent of plebiscites. Then-premier Mike Baird was in favour, in close alignment with his mate Abbott.

Now Berejiklian is Premier, she says she does not have a position either way and stresses she has never publicly stated one.

It's a telling response, given what is looming as a very public fight over the issue.

The non-binding convention was the agreed-upon circuit breaker advocated by then-premier Baird and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that emerged from last year's NSW Liberal state council at which Abbott and Villatora pushed hard for the party to adopt plebiscites.

When it rolls around, there will be good reason forBerejiklian to push hard for a broadly supported solution.

Theparty will begin preselections for state and federal seats next year otherwise known as peak season for factional warfare.

Avoiding a Felicity Wilson-style outbreak of friendly fire by keeping the factional suicide bombers at bay across key seats could provepivotalto the government's chances of winninga third term in office.

Sean Nicholls is state political editor.

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The vicious rumours at the heart of factional warfare for NSW Liberals - The Sydney Morning Herald