The Scene and Herd

In the Post today, Lorne Gunter writes on “the Liberal way with hypocrisy.” For years the Liberals have been calling the Conservatives un-Canadian, he says. But now that Harper’s Cons are calling Ignatieff un-Canadian, “the Grits are sputtering with indignation.”

To drive the point home, he assumes the voice of one (crazy!) Liberal talking about policy and patriotism.
“Not a fan of government monopoly health care? You’re un-Canadian. Not big on easy unemployment benefits, official bilingualism, dismantling our military, beggaring our economy in the name of environmentalism, coddling criminals, huge public debts, activist judges, multiculturalism, foreign investment reviews, national energy policies and so on? Shame on you for being so un-Canadian.”
First of all, I want to point out that he put official bilingualism, multiculturalism, and coddling criminals on the same list. (Are people seriously “against” multiculturalism? I mean, do they admit to that kind of thing?)

But besides that, the sarcasm is interesting. It looks like he’s using sarcasm to emphasize the fallacy of determining someone’s patriotism by comparing ideologies. The problem is, the Liberals aren’t doing that right now – the Conservatives are.

Is he trying to shame the Liberals for the poor logic they used in the past? Or is he trying to shame the Conservatives for using the same poor logic that the Liberals used in the past?

I was really hoping this was, indeed, going to be an article about Liberal hypocrisy. I feel much more comfortable in a world where there are Liberals or Conservatives (and a few adorable Idealists and Separatists on the side). I can argue best in this environment. But it looks like this is an article about poor logic all around. It’s so depressing.