Other conservative leaders try to present a mellow face to the world. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has learned to speak in soothing monotones as he announces cuts to pensions and Employment Insurance. Ontario Tory Leader Tim Hudak smiles when he calls for trade union rights to be gutted.
In the U.S., Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney tries to reserve his true opinions — such as his belief that almost half of Americans are pikers — for gatherings of fellow billionaires.
When these beliefs are leaked to the public, as happened this week, Romney is flummoxed.
But Rob Ford is never flummoxed. Or perhaps it more accurate to say he is in a state of constant flummox.
His hypocrisy is upfront. Any other politician who made his name fighting the so-called gravy train might be embarrassed when found to use public resources inappropriately.
Ford, however, is unapologetic. Did he pressure city workers to fix up the street outside his family business? So what? Did he break conflict of interest rules? He never read them. Is he using taxpayer-funded resources for private activities? Forget about it.
Lesser politicians caught in outright acts of stupidity try to forge lame excuses.
The federal Conservatives justify their decision to build more prisons at a time of falling crime rates by saying they are privy to secret information.
They insist they scuppered the long-form census in response to a myriad of complaints from citizens — even though this isn’t true.
But Ford never justifies anything. He whines. He wheedles. At times he changes his story.
But he never backs down because he knows, deep in his heart, that as Rob Ford he’s entitled to do what he wants.
This is what makes him a model of the new conservatism. Old-fashioned conservatives believed in privilege but they also believed in obligation.
Old-fashioned conservatives might write the rules to benefit their class. But they believed in following the rules once written.
Modern conservatives believe the rules don’t apply to them. Various loopholes in the U.S. system ensure that Romney pays little or no income tax. But that’s all right. He’s Mitt Romney.
Yet if poor people or seniors use the same rules to pay no income tax, they’re just grifters.
Until he was caught, Romney had the grace to try and keep his real views on the rich and poor private. Ford doesn’t bother with such niceties.
He may not speak to the Star. But he and brother Doug are on the radio every week complaining at length about how their enemies — pinkos, tree huggers, journalists — treat them so badly.
Indeed, the Ford brothers are like a real-life version of the Katzenjammer Kids, a long-running newspaper cartoon strip that features two bulky brats who engage in malevolent pranks and who never change, no matter how many times they are caught.
So huzzah for Rob Ford. Among other things, he has shown that mayors are unnecessary in this city. I always suspected this when Mel Lastman was first magistrate. He spent most of his winters in Florida.
But Ford has made the mayor’s irrelevancy obvious. He doesn’t do much at city hall. He coaches high school football instead. When he does appear at council, his half-baked schemes are routinely defeated.
Even his much-vaunted constituency work is unnecessary. The Star’s Jack Lakey, also known as The Fixer, does a better job at holding the city bureaucracy to account. And Lakey isn’t on the public payroll.
Not that I would get rid of Ford. He may be useless as mayor. But he does have a role — one similar to that of a medieval king’s royal fool.
Ford reminds us of the absurdity of the powerful in general and the political right in particular. He is a piece of walking self-satire. Long may he reign.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Thomas Walkom
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