Thread by @JeffRybak

The abhorrent backsliding of rights in the United States should be a warning to voters everywhere - in every liberal democracy where we pride ourselves on our values and the resilience of our society. Progress isn't inevitable. It can stop. It can go backwards. #cdnpoli 1/10

What has happened in the States isn't a sudden disaster. The erosion of basic liberal and democratic values happens over time. Every time we lose sight of our common goals as a society - the idea that we're in this together - we damage the project a little more. #cdnpoli 2/10

We organize ourselves through politics - however messy and imperfect the process may be. We need to believe the system can work - we need to devote ourselves to making it work. Because the alternative is simply a death spiral where the ends justify any means. #cdnpoli 3/10

It isn't as simple as left-wing vs. right-wing. There are arsonists on both sides who would gladly force their agenda on society by whatever means, sooner than bow to social consensus and legal order. They want to win, even if it takes scorched earth to do it. #cdnpoli 4/10

Calling politicians we dislike dictators and traitors and Nazis - when really we just disagree with them and wish they weren't in power - damages the project also. If your opponents are truly evil, any tactic in reply is justified. But it's almost never that simple. #cdnpoli 5/10

Liberal and democratic values are not simply a leftist project. Values in a democratic society progress not because a woke minority stuffs their agenda down anyone's throat. We progress because we progress together, and learn together, and get better together. #cdnpoli 6/10

Canada's political institutions are in much better shape than America's, thankfully. Our Supreme Court recently handed down a decision that upset some people, about stacking periods of parole ineligibility for mass murder. But it was a unanimous, 9-0 decision. #cdnpoli 7/10

There are any number of political institutions in Canada that can be turned into partisan footballs. It's not just the Supreme Court - it's the Senate, the Governor General, various boards and tribunals. We're doing alright here, truly. But it can always be lost. #cdnpoli 8/10

More than anything, beware of any politician who says the system isn't working just because it doesn't produce the outcomes you want. Beware of anyone who promises to burn it down - whatever it takes to give you what you do want. You'll come to regret it, bitterly. #cdnpoli 9/10

Every battle won in a way that delegitimizes the democratic process undermines the foundation of our society. No matter who seems to have won in the short-term, we all lose in the long-term. Because when the process stops mattering, no rights are ever secure. #cdnpoli 10/10