Absurdity

So I've been into politics for a while, forums and such, want to make things better. I have always been more of an independent, I feel party politics don't work. It forces 1 train of thought on all issues, no one will fit perfectly into any party and their policies, just like no one fits into any label. Some things I agree with the liberals, some with the NDP, some with the Greens or cons, and some things I have a very different view. I voted for Layton and the NDP, for Trudeau, and last election I would have voted greens but my local candidate was MIA, I was trying to find the best combo of MP, party, and leader, so I ended up voting NDP.

I strongly believe in social issues, though I am a mixed bag. I feel we should be able to joke about anything we want, humour is key to coping with life. At same time everyone deserves respect and there can be a line between humour and downright hurtful or attacking comments. Cancel culture has gone too far in many cases, though in many others it is warranted. In the end though the environment is the number one issue, because without a place for us to live, social issues don't matter at all. I want a universal basic income, I want universal dental plan, a reduced work week, buy back of public utilities. I want to see big companies make less money, less rich people, less poor people and the growing of the middle class which continues to shrink.

SO I got involved with the Greens, seemingly as May was stepping down, but now really, even now it feels like she continues to lead, maybe not the party, but a leadership role in the party. There were elections, which had issues, a candidate I favoured was removed then re-instated, whole thing seemed a bit crazy, but I figure there aren't many leadership elections, so it could have just been logistics issues, a new thing or something, don't do it often, mistakes happen, emotions get high. My top candidates didn't win, but that's okay, I can compromise on some issues because the environment and our planet comes first. And from what I was told the party leader doesn't create policies but follows the policies laid forth by the members.

I saw a lot of voter disenfranchisement, people being told not to join the party just to vote for their candidate, left or right was "taking over the party" and just the seeds of a growing divide, where people can't unite but divide themselves, refusing to compromise because of some issues not seeing eye to eye, then everything must become a fight. I thought the idea was to grow, bring people in from all views to focus on progressive policies to sustain our environment during this climate collapse we are facing. But it felt the party didn't want to bring new members in, didn't want to expand their realms of influence.

Then over time as issues arose and things got more heated and emotional the party seems to have broken apart more, more division, disgusting tactics that I thought this party was trying to be better than. Mud slinging and attack politics from the leader instead of talking about issues and maintaining a civil dialogue. Groups that started to keep a public list of supporters of the party leader for "legal" reasons, that seem to make them just ripe for online harassment and bullying.

Instead of uniting on the most important issue of all, the green party seems to be allowing itself divided over smaller issues, that while important, are again meaningless without a planet to live on. We aren't supposed to be right or left, or center, or on any stupid label, but what is needed.