President Joe Biden spoke yesterday: "Our patience is wearing thin."
He announced mandates, but concluded the speech with a plea: "Get vaccinated."
Biden tried logic. "Vaccines provide very strong protection from severe illness." He tried guilt: "Your refusal has cost all of us." He tried begging: "So, please, do the right thing."
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| Huffington Post |
The push and pull between persuasion and compulsion is not unique to a polarized United States. Canada, our quiet, easy-to-ignore neighbor to the north, is going through its own tug of war. Sandford Borins offers an informed, close up look at what is happening in his home country of Canada. To remind American readers, Erin O'Toole is leader of the Conservatives; the People's Party of Canada is populist and libertarian; and an "order in council" is comparable to an executive order in the US.
Borins is now an emeritus professor at Canada's leading university, the University of Toronto. He was a college classmate who went on to be a scholar in political science. His professional work includes a focus on the message narratives imbedded in campaigns. In retirement he posts thoughtful observations in his blog: https://www.sandfordborins.com
Guest Post by Sandford Borins
Compel or Persuade
Borins
In his film about the conflict between Pierre Trudeau and Rene Levesque, The Champions, documentarist Donald Brittain refers to “the awesome weapons of office.” That attention-grabbing phrase brings to mind what politicians are fighting over and which of those weapons they would use if elected.
A consistent difference between the Liberal (LPC) and Conservative (CPC) platforms is that the Liberals will use the power to compel or command behaviour, while the Conservatives are only willing to attempt to persuade.
Guns, Germs, and Carbon
On Covid, the Liberals will establish vaccine mandates for areas of federal jurisdiction (the public service, travel, federally regulated firms) and spend $1 billion to fund the infrastructure for provincial vaccine passports. Leading by example, all their candidates (but one with a medical exemption) have declared that they have been vaccinated. The Conservatives will set a goal of a 90 percent vaccination rate but achieve it only by persuasion. And they have refused to disclose the vaccination status of their candidates.
On climate change, the Liberals’ centerpiece is the mandatory carbon tax, which will rise to the level necessary to meet the Paris (and Glasgow) Accord targets. The Conservatives’ counterpart is the carbon points plan, designed to induce consumers to use their accumulated carbon points to reduce the price of an as-yet-undisclosed list of green purchases.
On gun control, the Liberal program is to take firearms out of the hands of Canadians, period, with a carefully circumscribed and regulated exception for hunters. The Conservatives’ position (after their shift on repealing the May 2020 Order-in-Council banning semi-automatic weapons) still envisages a “review of the Firearms Act with participation by law enforcement, firearms owners, manufacturers, and members of the public.” For the Liberals, the time for talk is over.
Differences that Matter
Part of this divergence in views can be explained by differing notions of, and sensitivity, to externalities. Small-l liberals are more likely to see externalities such as contagion in the context of a pandemic and carbon emissions that must be regulated. Small-c conservatives are more likely to minimize the impact of externalities and emphasize what they see as personal freedom.
The divergence is also political. The CPC is trying to protect its right flank from the resurgent People’s Party of Canada (PPC). Erin O’Toole and his advisers are concerned that if they go too far towards compulsory policies, they will bleed base voters to the PPC, which might cost them seats in which they are in tight races with the Liberals (suburban Toronto for instance).
If elected, the Conservatives run the risk that, ultimately, they may fail to persuade their base to get vaccinated, to use their carbon points to reduce their carbon footprints, or to surrender their firearms. The anti-vax protestors stalking Justin Trudeau are unlikely to be persuaded, even if their parents die of Covid.
The Liberals’ platform of compulsory policies (vaccine mandates and passports, carbon pricing, firearms regulation) depend on widespread public support. (In addition, the carbon pricing policy required a favourable ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada.) Downtown Torontonians such as myself are strongly in favour of all these policies, but I recognize that support throughout the country might well be softer, especially for escalating increases in the carbon price. A weakening of public support for these measures could lead to a Liberal defeat.
This election could well be a turning-point in terms of whether Canadians prefer the strong arm of government mandating behaviour or the softer approach of a government trying to persuade the recalcitrant.
8 comments:
With this and the Afghanistan withdrawal Pres. Biden seems to be choosing confrontation rather than reconciliation. Good. It's refreshing to see a political calculation that takes a clear stand, aside from being the right course of action. Like so much in our public realm, however, very very late and likely to have much less impact that if it had been done in January.
It's also a recognition that persuasion, appealing to common sense and promoting science, isn't working and as such resignation to the death toll that will continue. At least they are now trying to protect those who work for us in the public sector.
It's also a signal to other Democrats that he's up for the fight. That's leadership.
What remains to be seen is if they will follow.
Biden was so wrong/incompetent regarding Afghanistan that his rigid self-confidence is alarming.
I’m so tired of the knee jerk reaction to the withdrawal characterizing it as “incompetent.” How many more suicide bomb deaths would there have been had we started in June, for instance, evacuating those Afghanis who had collaborated with us. How much more quickly would the Afghani defense forces had collapsed had they been watching American planes taking hundreds of thousands of their fellow nationals out of the country. They, in all likelihood, would have turned their guns on ou troops defending the airports, in a desperate attempt to get on the planes themselves. Perhaps the Taliban were the only force disciplined enough with whom we could arrange an orderly withdrawal. Comparisons have been made to Britain’s successful evacuation at Dunkirk. For starters, Britain was able to send hundreds of vessels across a narrow channel. And how many hundreds of British sailors and soldiers died in the effort?
It’s so easy to criticize
Good piece. What continues to catch my eye are comments like "The anti-vax protestors....are unlikely to be persuaded, even if their parents die of Covid".
Have you ever wondered why people's beliefs can be so strong that they remain in denial even when the evidence contrary to their beliefs is right in front of them. Like people dying of Covid - who insist it can't be because Covid is a hoax?
It could be what Kenneth Doka wrote about back in 1989 about Disenfranchised grief
Or just our general lack of humility that we "can be wrong".
You can't convince the anti-vaxxers with reason or facts because they believe in "alternative facts." You can't shame them because they have no shame. Maybe making them pay for the cost of their folly would get their attention. Insurance companies should require the unvaccinated to pay for their own treatment when they come down with COVID.
I don't believe a fucking thing that Joe Biden says anymore.
Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, Antony Blinken and Kamala Harris are ALL pathological liars. Do you wish to debate that?? No amount of lipstick is going to save this administration.
Look, Obama tried throughout his Presidency to get buy-in from Republicans. They laughed at his "weakness" and dug their heels in deeper. If Obama wanted ACA to pass, well, they'd think about it as Republicans whittled it down further and further. Oh you want to appoint judges, think again. You won't get a hearing from us. Oh you raised your voice, see you're just an angry Black man (Although they used the other work to describe his skin color and ethnicity.)
Now with Joe Biden we have the Republican optics, "Oh look at the sleepy, senile, old, weak man who can't talk. And then the other thought, Kamala Harris is really running the show. Look at how weak Biden is! He begs people to get a shot and wear a mask. Look he can't pass any legislation that the country really needs (because we won't let him) Silly Joe, well we just won't do that either. So, old man, what are you going to do about it? Now he uses the power of the Presidency to enforce vaccination requirements on more that 80 million people or face losing their jobs. What do you think you're doing, Republicans say, that's unconstitutional (it's not). Essentially like a little child you can't make me. But the parent (Joe Biden) telling their children (Republican Governors) you need to do this for your own health and safety. So kids eat your vegetables or no dessert. That is the perfect way to put an end the the clown show that the GOP has become.
Nobody was the purveyor of truth more than the great con man trump. That’s a fact!
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