David Staples: Hottest political debate of the summer? Whether ‘PeePee is weird’ or ‘Trudope is a wacko’

Are Canada’s political leaders behaving like children when they label each other as wacko or as weird? Or are such put-downs a sound, even winning strategy in politics?

Whatever the answer to those questions, I’ll suggest that the hottest political debate just now is whether “PeePee is weird” or “Trudope is wacko.” Yes, our politics has come to that. Maybe it’s just the summer silly season. And, to be clear, if you’re blaming any one political leader for starting the blaming and belittling of opponents, you might need to brush up on your world history. Demonizing the enemy is a practice as ancient as dust.

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In recent years, we’ve seen Donald Trump rise to popularity by labelling his opponents as crooked, sleepy, fat and/or stupid. At exactly the same time, left-wing thought leaders have constantly defamed right-of-centre commentators as racists, as Nazis or as vile haters of gays, lesbians, trans and various other groups.

Most recently, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has taken to calling all things Trudeau Liberals “wacko.”  Liberal supporters on social media criticized Poilievre’s behaviour, though it’s worth noting many of them love to reference Poilievre by his initials, spelling them out as “PeePee,” possibly a response to Conservative supporters incessantly labelling Trudeau as “Trudope.”

The Trudeau Liberals have now shot back by picking up on a trend out of the U.S., the Liberals referring to all things Poilievre and Conservative as “weird.”

One school of thought holds that this rampant name-calling is a signal that things are going badly wrong. Perhaps the trend is best seen as a slightly more advanced form of what Gurwinder Bhogal, the influential British-Indian social commentator, refers to as “neotoddlerism.”

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In a new essay, The Outrageous Rise of Neotoddlerism, Bhogal focuses on the alarming acts of public vandalism and rioting promoted on social media and enacted by radical activists of the left and right, such as throwing soup on a priceless painting or rioting over immigration.

The rise of smart phones in 2009 led to the ability to mobilize rapidly, Bhogal said, then encouraged ever more outrageous protests. “Many activists on both the left and right now hope to bring about their ideal world in the same way a spoiled brat acquires a toy they’ve been denied — by being as loud and hysterical as possible. This is neotoddlerism — the view that utopia can be achieved by acting like a three-year-old.”

Name-calling isn’t generally the stuff of three-year-olds but begins to flourish in elementary school. It continues on into the political realm because it works to get attention and to persuade.

In this summer political season, some of Trudeau’s and Poilievre’s most popular tweets have been put-downs.

“Legalizing crack. Banning plastic straws. Welcome to Trudeau’s wacko world,” Poilievre posted on July 20, earning him 933,000 views on X, formerly Twitter, easily one of his most popular posts.

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Trudeau shot back in response to another Poilievre post where the Conservative leader essentially blasted Trudeau for being a communist, referencing Trudeau’s decade-old statement about admiring China’s dictatorship.

“I think this guy needs to touch grass,” Trudeau said of Poilievre’s attack.

I’m no fan of Trudeau but his post was a first-class comeback, gently mocking Poilievre, a clever approach. The post was also one of Trudeau’s most popular, getting him 2.1 million views on X.

The popularity of such attacks is why we see so many of them. It’s why fundraising emails from political parties bristle with the defamation and demonizing of opponents. Such put-downs rile up people and drive donations.

In the face of the success of name-calling, what to do then?

I’ll suggest the best role model for how to handle modern debate is U.S. defence lawyer and constitutional expert Alan Dershowitz, who you can listen to on the Dershow podcast.

A life-long Democrat, Dershowitz , now 85, has been constantly berated and routinely ostracized for his defence of controversial figures from Mike Tyson to Donald Trump, from O.J. Simpson to Harvey Weinstein. But he sets the standard for consistently displaying wisdom in the face of defamatory allegations and incendiary attacks.

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Dershowitz never plays the victim. Instead, when it comes to debate, he floats like a butterfly, playing with and fearlessly investigating any and all claims. But he also stings like a bee, now and then suing the most powerful and defamatory to make a point, but generally just pounding away methodically at his opponent’s position with reason and knowledge.

In our politics, put-downs have a place and a purpose, but I’ll suggest a wise leader is what Canadians really crave. To the extent Trudeau or Poilievre can demonstrate such wisdom, they’ll win our approval.

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