LITTLEJOHN: Trump has blown open the system for conservatives everywhere

Tessa Littlejohn is a Calgary-based writerUp until five minutes ago, the only thing Conservative voters hoped for from their representatives was that they 'hold the line.' The rules of the game were a sort of one-way ratchet.Startup companies are familiar with a venture capitalist strategy called the “one-way ratchet.” This strategy guarantees that the venture capitalist’s shares are never diluted by changes in valuation. The other investors bear all the pain.For the last one hundred years, it's been like that in Canadian politics. When in power, Canada's so-called 'progressives' — the Liberal Party of Canada, in other words — push as hard as they can to shift the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population. This range has been designated The Overton Window. For example, 20 years ago, people were prepared to discuss whether putting fluoride in the water was a good thing. Now that it's normal practice, it's hard to imagine it ever being removed. That subject is 'outside the window.' So, the Liberals push until people start screaming and then they stop — for a moment. When conservatives get into power, they 'conserve' the state of play at its current location, thus locking in the progressives' Overton Window shift. Like a ratchet, they never shift the Overton window back to the right. The flow of culture and policy only ever moves in one direction — the direction preferred by progressives.No one expects Conservative leaders to do otherwise. It seemingly can't be done.To use a different analogy, Conservatives are seemingly happy to operate in the frame set by the Liberals. "Frame" in this context is defined as "an often subconscious, mutually acknowledged personal narrative under which people will be influenced. Whose reality are you living in?" In Canada everyone lives in the Liberals' reality. The Liberals pick the game, set the rules and the Conservatives must play along. But do they need to? Is our constitution such a one-way ratchet that the rules cannot be changed?In the last few weeks President Trump has demonstrated emphatically, conclusively and dramatically that it is, in fact, possible to play a different game under different rules. We are now, like it or not, living in his frame, or reality.As a result, the Conservative complaints that it can't be done — it isn't possible, no one has ever succeeded — no longer sound convincing. Equalization, Senate reform, the size and incompetence of the federal bureaucracy, the 'world class' health care system on the brink of collapse, the prophets of climate Armageddon, the Quebecois blackmailers and their appeasers, the captured 'toadies' in mainstream media — all these sacred cows, and more, have been subject to one-way ratchets. With 43% of young voters wanting out of this frame, perhaps the Liberals' rules are no longer 'good enough' for Canadian voters.Donald Trump has not just shifted the Overton Window; he has smashed it to pieces and conservative voters in many western countries won't be satisfied with lame rationalizations offered by feeble custodians of the status quo.Have Pierre Poilievre and Danielle Smith noticed the wind has rapidly and dramatically shifted? The old game is over and if they don't adjust, they won't be playing. The fight is on, the game and the rules are new, and 'Conservative' politicians can get meaningfully into the fray or risk running to be governorship. Tessa Littlejohn is a Calgary-based writer.

LITTLEJOHN: Trump has blown open the system for conservatives everywhere

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