This week the US passed an emergency bill to avert the looming threat of sequestration. Tucked away in the 500+ page bill were several last-minute additions, one which dealt a pre-emptive strike against anti-gun legislation, the other – dubbed the Monsanto bill – worked to limit restrictions on GMOs. These secretive laws were penned anonymously from behind closed doors unbeknownst to most of the senators who signed the bill into law.
A handful of politicians/corporate shills sneaking through undesirable laws, hidden by the fog of an urgent bill which was only made into an emergency by the institutionalized ineptitude known as the US political system.
Here in Canada, we face a similar tact by the conservative party. They take all their new laws and roll them up into a giant turd called an omnibus bill. By slow-feeding the media key talking points and ensuring all their party is on board, they get this growing ball rolling, gaining momentum up to the point when the deadline nears. Then, even though people will point out the many pieces of crap legislation being passed through without due discussion, the whole thing is moving with such inertia that no one is able to stop it lest they be covered in shit.
It’s ridiculous. This isn’t democracy. At least not as good as democracy can get. In the age of the Internet and social media, governance could be so much more than it is today. We could have way more transparency. Way more accountability.
The sad part is, every time government makes some baloney move that chips away at our individual freedoms and it goes by without an uproar from we the public, they gain power while we lose it.
And our silence is all the consent they need.
