Contempt for the USA Puts Democracy at Risk Everywhere

Canadian and American flags are seen at the U.S.–Canada border in Pittsburg, N.H., on March 1, 2017. (Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

Contempt for America has long been part of the left’s DNA, and sometimes even the smallest example compels one to reflect on the larger dilemma.

The November edition of a local Nova Scotia publication featured a “good news story” by a retired Canadian who had spent 10 years enjoying the unspoiled beaches and Southern hospitality of Nassau County Florida’s Amelia Island.

The writer was a former journalist and one-time media director for Greenpeace Canada who recently decided to return to Canada. The report included a smiling photo of the ex-pat and her Portuguese Water Dog happily waiting to board the ferry from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Nova Scotia.

Reflecting on her years in Florida, she wrote: “I loved my life on an island surrounded by warm waters, with mile after mile of deserted sandy beach. I loved the social justice groups I became involved with, the active and welcoming church on the corner, the YMCA with its outdoor pool, the charming downtown with great restaurants, and my many wonderful friends.”

But, her memoir abruptly turned dark and angry. “Why did I move?” She asked herself. “In a nutshell, I couldn’t stay another minute in the political quagmire that is the State of Florida.”

Leaving behind the life she “loved” on Amelia Island was clearly an ideological imperative. She asserted that Florida’s pro-American education curriculum produced “banned books, forbidden content in schools, [and] violent racism.”

“When the ugliness that is politics in the USA began its relentless in-my-face onslaught in advance of the 2022 mid-term elections, I knew I’d had enough,” she wrote.

Contempt for Our Neighbours Is Not a Natural Canadian Trait

From legacy media to local newspapers, contempt for America is all too common among liberal-progressive Canadian opinion makers.

But while our dominant, left-of-center political class has contempt for all things American, many ordinary Canadians do not.

Canadians and Americans stand astride 5,525 miles of undefended border and share two of the world’s most similar cultures. On both sides of the northern line, common people understand that they are being manipulated, bankrupted, and persecuted by an out-of-control globalist oligarchy.

While the Laurentian left portrays America as the world’s principal source of distress and inequity, there are scores of middle and working-class Canadians who would welcome the lower tax and unemployment rates, respectable family incomes, and unashamed loyalty to the nation that are hallmarks of places like Nassau County, Florida.

In fact, the USA has been an avatar for democracy throughout modern history. It’s our deracinated Davos technocrats who discourage free-world nations from restoring full civil liberties and pursuing mutually supportive interests.

Disdain for Common People Compromises Democracy

Contempt is a powerful feeling that’s reserved for people regarded as inferior and worthless. Those held in contempt by high society are routinely dishonored.

There can be little cohesion in societies when the history and customs of some are disrespected by others. Liberal-left politicians and journalists who dismiss political opponents as deplorables, fascists, extremists, or insurrectionists are wilfully signaling that it’s open season on citizens they regard as unworthy. They forbid dissent and reduce our capacity for human compassion.

Like an enemy-engineered bio-weapon, contempt isn’t only contagious—it can be fatal. On both sides of the Can-Am border, good people have been victimized by a heinous combination of over-reaching governments, political mobs, unhinged activists, and politicized law enforcement.

In a national health system, considered to be the crown jewel of Justin Trudeau’s welfare state, authorities have even proposed same-day assisted suicide for mentally distressed citizens.

In the years ahead it’s difficult to imagine that the necessary conditions for fair elections, freedom of speech, constitutional rights, and equal treatment under the law will be maintained by a political class that has no respect for a loyal opposition.

National sovereignty and government “by the people” is unlikely to be preserved while globalist patricians and condescending woke opinion-makers promote disdain for common people.

Contempt for the USA puts democracy at risk everywhere.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.