As Stephen Harper, Doug Ford, Donald Trump, Marine La Pen and a host of other extreme, radical, right-wing Conservatives worldwide have amply proven, global politics is becoming more and more extreme as time goes on. In the Alice in Wonderland fantasy world of neoconservative ideology, nothing is what it seems to be and anything is justifiable to achieve your aims. Lying to cover your mistakes is effective crisis management and denying responsibility for them is the prime directive. In Canada, the Liberals and the NDP are not white as the driven snow either and the same can be said for the Democrats in the U.S. Corruption is acceptable – just don’t get caught. Politics is a game. Cronyism, patronage and double standards are legitimate political practices unless exposed. Saying one thing and doing another is ethically acceptable. Welcome to the modernist neocon politics of cynicism and despair. We live in a continual state of austerity and need. This charade is necessary so that political shenanigans can be pulled off right under the noses of voters.

In the face of undeniable and self-apparent realities of a sinking Titanic we are reassuringly told not to panic – everything’s just fine by our captain the Prime Minister – the economy and our democracy are strong. This while the politicians continue to siphon off increasing economic wealth to enrich the 1% and we teeter on the brink of a yet another cyclic recession in the boom and bust globalized capitalist economy amidst ongoing and persistent social decline. We mistakenly belief that we live in a democracy – we live in a capitalist democracy – there is a significant difference.

To expose the truth, we must look behind the thinly disguised neoconservatism and examine the verity of its claims and those of its movement. Amongst the most persistent and egregious oft-repeated myths perpetrated by neocons is the one that they are the best stewards of the economy and that cutting taxes is the way to improve the financial health of Canada. The lion’s share of these tax cuts always go to the private sector and the wealthy while the messaging is tax cuts for the middle class. Over the past decade Canada has had one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the world and little has changed so clearly this strategy has not worked. There is also little credible economic research that indicates any beneficial effects to the widely employed practice the neocons mindlessly chant. Similarly, cutting interest rates and depressing the Canadian dollar has had marginal positive effects on the economy while significantly raising costs by 30% for everyone in Canada in order to benefit a few industries that export goods. A low dollar hurts everyday Canadians.

A second mantra of neocons is cutting the wasteful cost of government. This is how tax cuts are paid for and is code for their dedicated bias towards the dismantling of government, social programs and social opposition to Conservative policies. It serves the double function of actually deconstructing the core structure of democracy that these organizations represent such as restrictive changes to the Elections Act, cuts to Statistics Canada and the muzzling of Government of Canada scientists. While the Trudeau government has rolled back some of these changes, Doug Ford’s aggressive posture surrounding changes his government are brining in can change these advances in a heartbeat. Governments seem to be moving towards conservatism and although people are not comfortable with these radical changes they are fed up with the traditional system and its repetitive politics. Liberals and the NDP do not get that yet. These steps are more sinister than the changes to the economy but both are deeply concerning.. All this happens while the government covertly allocates billions of taxpayer’s money to corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthy. The neoconservatives and the Liberals are guility of this. Our democracy is looking more like an oligarchy every day.

Contemporary neoconservative dogma as practiced by the extreme right is a direct threat to real democracy, freedom and human rights that all Canadians should be concerned about that comes in the form of thousands of small and large negative changes to our social and governmental systems intended to weaken the structure of government itself and its democratic protections for citizens while strengthening the powers of the corporate sector and powerful right-wing elites. When we vote in October we need to understand that the enemy of democracy is not the external threat of ISIS, or Russia or China but the ideology of radical neoconservatism that is becoming normalized in modern politics. Before we invite the Trojan horse into our Canadian village we need to think carefully about what we are actually getting.