Bodily Functions and the Body Politic

Over at the Tyee, Bill Horne thinks a lot of leftist and/or labour activists are guilty of 'branding with bile'

"With traditional adversaries trying to reconcile in various parts of the world -- truth commissions, dialogue groups, peace camps for Palestinian and Israeli or Belfast Catholic and Protestant children -- the lessons are there. Can the NDP learn from these pioneers in peace making, and break out of its us-against-them rhetoric into more confident, inclusive and powerful politics?"

There are no lessons, unless the BC Liberals start shooting at people. The conflicts Horne uses as illustrations are marked by violence, but in that violence there exists a balance of power, if at the least a sense of mutually assured destruction. In BC politics, there is no balance of power: we have one party with its base among working people trying to make their lives just a little easier (the NDP), and we have one party with its base among the corporate elite who think working people are theirs to manipulate as they see fit (formerly Social Credit, now the BC Liberals).

Throw in the right-wing's mortal lock on major media outlets and the province's lack of election financing laws, and it makes as much sense for the left to extend a hand to the other side as it does to start to start stocking up on the ammunition ourselves. There's a reason the body produces bile, if it doesn't produce bile than the body becomes diseased and dies. So does the left if we mistakenly look for common ground that isn't there.

Horne's questioning effectiveness of negative rhetoric about one's opponents leaves this page somewhat puzzled, given the Liberals rode it to 77 seats in 2001 election. What, is it only good to demonize your opponents when you're pretty much assured of winning?