The Worm That Turned ... Into a Worm

"On the child pornography issue, since that was brought up, you know a lot of people on [my] conservative side of the spectrum are on a jihad against pornography -- and child pornography in particular. And I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters. But I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures. [However], it is a real issue of personal  liberty to what extent we put people in jail for something in which they do not harm another person."
(February 7, 2013) Tom Flanagan, professor of Political Science, political adviser, pundit

 

Tom Flanagan is a former campaign manager for Stephen Harper. Photo: Mark Kennedy (Postmedia News)

"A person I know in the PMO told me afterwards that their phones were 'melting down' after the YouTube video was posted, and that they had to distance themselves from the words 'no harm' that I had used. The rationale is familiar: react to the inflammatory phrase taken out of context, respond immediately, don't worry about collateral damage to people ... To some extent this is a reflection of the shadow side of Harper's personality, but it is also a cancer eating at the whole conservative movement in Canada ... When the Liberals seemed to be in power forever, Conservatives concluded that part of their secret of success was ruthlessness ... We concluded that we would have to beat them at their own game, and we did. Harper led the way."

Persona Non Grata, 2014, Tom Flanagan

Oh, the poor misunderstood man who has suffered the ignominy of having people of his very own political camp recoil at the sentiments expressed by a man whose judgement on that particular score can quite confidently be called into question. Considering someone who enjoys salivating over child pornography innocent of doing anything wrong, just going about his private business, undeserving of being hounded...? Good to know, at least, that he has no 'sympathy' for child molesters.

His sympathy extends only to those whose "taste in pictures" creates the market for child rape. How credulous does this supposedly intelligent man think his 'detractors' are, for finding his views abhorrent, to excuse him on the basis of his statement that viewing child pornography causes no harm to children? It's the market, stupid. As long as there's a market, of psychically deformed sexual gratification, children will continue to be victimized in the most horrifying of ways.

But this simple truth is beyond an avowed intellectual? He was devastated, disbelievingly horror-struck at the backlash that his casual remarks on child pornography enjoyment caused. What kind of nether world does the man live in? He expressed his opinion with the confidence of those who enjoy the respect of academic experts in their field of expertise. Is it telling that he betrayed himself to be an errant ignoramus of the dark side of life?

In his own defence, penning another exculpatory tract that will completely exonerate him of any vile blame for simply stating his opinion on a volatile subject. And in the process, exercising virulent spite aimed directly at those he once made common political cause with. This time letting loose with his 'inside' track on the personalities he guided to government administration. "We concluded that we would have to beat them at their own game, and we did"; as the chief architect of Stephen Harper's run for prime minister, he set the agenda and convinced the party to run with it.

And now he's deploring their actions on his blueprint for success. The Prime Minister, he has written in his newest opus, "has enormous gifts of intelligence, willpower and work ethic; but there is also a dark, almost Nixonian side to the man... He can be suspicious, secretive and vindictive, prone to sudden eruptions of white-hot rage over meaningless trivia". Lucky for us that we have a highly intelligent prime minister with a strong power of will and ethics.

And good on him that it is the 'meaningless' things that raise his ire, leaving him to focus calmly on those that matter.

As for Mr. Flanagan, what a pitiful performance. Had he, once his passion-provoking throwaway thoughts on child pornography had backfired, launched an admission of shallow thought processing, and second thoughts prevailing, he might have elicited the continued respect of a man who could err, and then restore himself to logical thinking. Instead, he behaved and continues to behave like an adolescent caught out in immature behaviour, refusing to take himself in hand.

They're all after him! Militant feminists; fundamentalist Christians; police agencies; and socially conservative politicians. But he'll show them all, rising above their political correctness; people who are, after all, not indifferent to the plight of small children being abused and tortured, their childhood taken from them, their futures dimmed by frightened despair and physical and mental wounds too deep to be overcome into normalcy.

He's the champion of the poor schlep that just happens to enjoy their pain and degraded circumstances of life, and anyone who can't find sympathy for what a man does in his private moments really is beyond his notice.