Oh, come ON people!!  This is a single freeze-frame of Harper waving his hand at the public.  Just because someone captured a shot of his hand in mid-wave that SOMEWHAT looks like a Nazi salute when taken completely out of context does NOT mean he's a bloody Hitler wanna-be!!  Next you'll be telling us that if someone has a mustache that's shaved on the sides then they HAVE to be Hitler re-incarnated... this is ridiculous.

This post is why so many people hate left wingers.

This would have been a great picture as a jab, if it were included with something articulate. This bare minimum effort thought, like a burp that never was, is akin to the cliches of the right, of "the vegan, feminist, communist conspiracy to tax us all through the lie of man made climate change."

In the midst of economic meltdown, the majority is, for the moment, receptive to new ideas. In my opinion, the way to communicate with that majority is not to take partisan swipes at elected leaders, petty or no. If you listen to even the most reactionary, average citizen, they don't trust ANY politican, not just Harper. They realize, maybe not in our words, that any of the elites put in power are going to be just as bad, if not worse, then the next. The majority doesn't trust authority. But they don't trust an attack on Harper either, because the immediate association is that you are a liberal, or NDP supporter. The majority expresses their distrust of authority in settings they understand, the workplace for example. They see the processes, set up by management that have never turned a wrench, or had to deal with a customer, or had to make capitalism move. They see their satisfaction in a job well done be manipulated, twisted, fractioned, in order to squeeze every last cent out of the product. They see themselves working harder and wondering if they'll put their kids through college, if they'll have enough savings to live on when they get old, because they know deep down that this economy can't last.

With all this, the "left" in Canada has a great opportunity to build a culture of resistance. If we attempt to frame this resistance in partisan politics however, I feel we can expect to lose. If we expect to frame call-outs for resistance in "come protest the fascist dictatorship of Stephen Harper", I also feel we can expect to lose. We need solidarity where people are actually at. People want a good education for their kids, opportunities, security in old age, clean housing, fridges, stoves, etc, child care, etc. Democracy is just a word when the people are starving.

We can either frame it in regime change, or abstract ideas and rhetorical comparisons, or in solutions. We can offer people the same tired lines, or we can show them a horizontal world where good work is secured by collectively owned production, education is provided by free schools that can teach practical skills as well as politics, mutual aid in old age and young age is provided by strong communities.

Let's not waste this opportunity with voting boxes, or lofty ideas expressed with hollow words.