Friday, November 02, 2007

Fundraising Free Association

When I look at the dismal Liberal fundraising numbers Steve reports here, my mind is cast back, back in time to the heady days of late '06 when Liberals confronted the issue of party reform and duffed it, chose to remain mired in the past:

MONTREAL -- The drive to modernize the federal Liberal party hit a roadblock Thursday when delegates flatly rejected a shift to a one-member, one-vote leadership process.

Many were unhappy. For example, at the time I wrote:

A vote to retain the current format also signifies that the Party does not trust its general membership to choose a party leader acceptable to its Elite (the people that show up for these wing-dings). This decision will come out as a net Negative when it comes to growing that general Membership...

...and Red Tory argued that this "snotty elitism" showed how out of touch the party was with the rest of the nation.

However, those who needed to hear and heed these arguments were passed-out face down in hotel rooms all around Montreal, wearing their Liberal thongs and clutching cheap bottles of red to their chests.

Now, you can't blame these lousy fundraising numbers on one decision, but that one decision serves to accentuate the fact that the Liberal Party, as it is currently constituted, is the furthest of all the majors from being a "grass roots" entity. As a rank and file member (which my wife has been at times), you are expected to show up at events and assume your function as a cheque writing machine before buggering off into the night. That might have been okay when the Libs were in power, but since they aren't anymore, what exactly are people paying for? "Access" to those on the opposition benches?

Proximity to losers, in other words.

I suspect that Liberal fundraising woes will not change until the Party itself changes, by offering something more than the occasional night of rather expensive hot-dogs to its rank and file. If people do not feel that their participation can influence policy, if they feel that the only way they can help choose a party leader is to schmooze their way to the top of their local riding association, they will not join and they will not pay.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You hit the nail on the head. People are running away from the LPC in droves because it has become a refuge for communists and their ideology and rhetoric. No new ideas come from your elitist ruling class. And you disdain any ideas that may come from your drunken 'grassroots' supporters. You hate anything that resembles an American policy out of blind hatred - you can't even articulate what you don't like about any U.S. policy except that you're against "the Americanization of Canada".

When you wake up and smell the coffee, you'll realize that you are being played as patsies by your megarich uber-lords (you know their names). Your "boldly progressive social issues" have created the social blights we see today, which had never appeared before in Canadian history until some jackass named PET showed up. Communist in elist clothing.

Anonymous said...

What a shame that the rules have changed and Paul Desmarais, Maurice Strong and the Power Corp. can no longer funnel money to the LPC to further their agendas.

What you see in the donation numbers are true grass roots supporters, something the CPC has in droves.

It is a sad state of affairs when the LPC can barely outfund the NDP (whose supporters are notoriously thrifty).

Ti-Guy said...

What a shame that the rules have changed and Paul Desmarais, Maurice Strong and the Power Corp. can no longer funnel money to the LPC to further their agendas.

Actually, I think most people are quite happy about that. Why do you think that's a shame?

What you see in the donation numbers are true grass roots supporters, something the CPC has in droves.

And I'm sure they're happy that their party broke election spending laws with all that loot, a scandal that's implicated a vast number of Conservative candidates.

Y'see...with Liberals, the corruption is isolated. With Conservatives...well...they're all corrupt. Even their supporters.

Anonymous said...

ahhh ti-guy, the pain is getting to you little pea sized liberal brain.

Keep up the good work of being a fine example of Liberal tolerance, integrity and applied common sense.

Or just go back to pulling you pud.

Ti-Guy said...

Keep up the good work of being a fine example of Liberal tolerance, integrity and applied common sense.

Thank you.

Alison said...

Ah, how I long for the return of the drunken communist elitist mega-rich ruling class uber-lords...

Anonymous said...

"With liberals corruption is isolated".

Are you fucking kidding me?

The Liberal party is an organized crime racket that exists to reward its followers with jobs and grants. A bunch of douchebags that can be bought off with a new fridge and a free paint job. A bunch of crooks whose only concern is winning the next election and saying and taking whatever position it takes to do so.

Ti-Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

The Liberal party has NEVER been a grassroots party. It's always been elitist, ideology driven from the top. They come up with the social experiments which affect YOUR lives (not theirs) and then they sell it down your throats. Which you suckers happily consume, and force the symptoms of your infection on the rest of us.

As somebody said elsewhere, Liberalism is a Venereal Disease. You get it by being f*cked over by some progressive socialist prick.

Anonymous said...

I'm confused here; does the LPC raise funds for Tamil Tigers or is it the other way around?

Anonymous said...

You've truly exposed the shallowness of the members of the LPC. They are there for the power and the money, period. They use the rhetoric of 'social justice' and other PC-speak words in order to be accepted, but they're in it for the cash. Plain and simple greed. They're not there to help, they're there to help themselves.