Now I get it
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Post subject: Now I get it | |
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Something dropped into place for me just now, reading Tom Switzer.
Now why would I read Tom Switzer? He's just a cookie-cutter right-wing ideologue who obediently sticks to neo-conservative orthodoxy; his appointment to the ABC was a disgrace; and he never has anything much new to say, after all. But I do make a point of reading views that disagree with me, and every now and again that policy pays off.
Today, it paid off.
Writing about the Wentworth by-election and the Liberals' problems there, his theme was that they should not worry so much, pretty much ignore all other public issues, and simply champion trickle-down economics as their main (and in his view practically only) claim to public esteem and electoral success. Well, it's not a terribly intelligent point of view, but that's OK, it's par for the course for Switzer.
But along the way he just happened to throw off a single sentence which made an enduring mystery suddenly clear to me. For years now, ever since the last election, I have been unable to understand the deep, almost visceral hatred so many in the Liberal Party had for Turnbull. It made absolutely no sense. Turnbull was by far their most popular figure. He saved their arses at the last election, even going so far as to donate millions of dollars out of his own pocket. He rolled over on every single touchstone issue, giving the hard right exactly what they wanted on immigration, energy policy, gay marriage, climate change, and a host of other issues. He was the kind and gentle face, making harsh policies less unpalatable to an increasingly doubtful electorate. Turnbull was exactly what they needed: a way to stay in office and carry on with the hard right's policies, while presenting an urbane, intelligent, modern-looking face to the voters.
But they hated him!
I could never understand that. Turnbull (or someone very like him) was their only chance to stay in office, their only chance to get exactly what they wanted. And he delivered. He got them their tax cuts for the wealthy. He got them a complete zero of a climate policy. He got them their gay marriage plebiscite, kept their religious chaplains in public schools, wrecked the NBN, did his very best to get tax cuts through for large companies, resist the Banking Royal Commission as long as possible, delay financial reforms, defund ASIC and the ABC ... a great long Christmas list of things they wanted. All down to Turnbull and his ability to look as though he represented "the sensible centre" while still enacting hard right policies.
It just didn't make any sense.
Until I read Switzer's column today. In passing, with a single sentence, he provided the vital clue:
"The party remains shattered since Turnbull blew Tony Abbott’s huge majority at the 2016 election."
Now I get it!
They actually think that the incredibly unpopular Abbott would have won! They blame Turnbull - the man who saved their sorry arses and magicked a close-run victory out of certain defeat - for Abbott's comprehensive failure.
This is why they very nearly chose the suicidally unpopular Dutton to lead them. This is why they wound up backing the egregious right-winger Morrison (who will doubtless lead them to resounding defeat) instead of the highly electable Julie Bishop. They have convinced themselves - God only knows how - that the public goodwill they pissed away inside twelve months after being handed a massive walkover victory by the appalling Kevin Rudd was in fact theirs by right, and it was that class traitor Turnbull who lost it for them.
OK, it's an incredibly stupid thing to believe. But given that one ridiculous counter-fact, everything else they have done since is actually logical.
Thank you Tom Switzer. I now finally understand what is going on. _________________ �Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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Yup.
There's a hard core who still believe that Abbott would have turned the boat around and sailed them into the promised land if he hadn't been shafted by Turnbull.
They never forgave him for that.
Christ, when Turnbull said if Dutton produced the numbers he'd step down and not re-contest the leadership, clearing the way for Scho Mo, there were some calling for Abbott to throw his hat in the ring. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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roar
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
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The ultra conservatives are certainly a strange bunch. _________________ kill for collingwood! |
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thesoretoothsayer
Joined: 26 Apr 2017
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I feel sorry for Malcolm.
He was potentially a great Labor PM. |
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roar
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
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Nah, he was a Liberal politician, just not a loony Lib. He was like the other Malcolm PM we had. _________________ kill for collingwood! |
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Wokko
Come and take it.
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
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Jezza
2023 PREMIERS!
Joined: 05 Sep 2010 Location: Ponsford End
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Malcolm Turnbull didn't save the Liberal Party, he destroyed it.
As others said, he would have made a great Labor PM. _________________ | 1902 | 1903 | 1910 | 1917 | 1919 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1935 | 1936 | 1953 | 1958 | 1990 | 2010 | 2023 | |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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Man between 2 parties.
His personal beliefs socially were a better fit at labor, but they'd never take him in. He didn't fit their mold. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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Jezza wrote: | Malcolm Turnbull didn't save the Liberal Party, he destroyed it.
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He certainly didn't save it, although he won an election that Abbott had zero chance of winning, but for the life of me I can't see how he destroyed it.
If he was allowed to lead the way he wanted, it would have taken them further left but he was never allowed to do that. Instead we have a small hardcore of right wing religious nuff nuffs who aren't even representative of their own electorates let alone broader Australia holding the reins. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Jezza wrote: | Malcolm Turnbull didn't save the Liberal Party, he destroyed it. |
Huh?
What on earth do you mean by that Jezza? It is on the face of things an extraordinary, downright bizarre claim. Normally I'd ignore it as just some odd-ball extreme right wing stupidity of no consequence, but you are neither extreme nor stupid.
I would genuinely like to know what MT is suposed to have done to destroy the Liberal Party
Jezza wrote: | As others said, he would have made a great Labor PM. |
Others have said it, but no-one knows why. He has no understanding of Labor issues, and no Labor values. No values at all, so far as anyone can tell, at least none that he wasn't prepared to sell out in a heartbeat if he got to be PM for another week.
Actually, now that you mention it, he does reminds me of a Labor PM, one particular one generally acknowledged as the worst Labor PM of all time and one of the worst five PM's Australia has ever had. Exactly like that ego-obsessed scoundrel Rudd, Turnbull was always far, far more interested in himself than anything else, and had a peculiar ability to appeal to voters on the opposite side of politics, no-one quite knows why (not in either case). So very like Rudd. Mind you, if you happened to find yourself sitting next to one or other of them on an aeroplane, you'd probably walk off thinking Turnbull had been interesting and pleasant company. Don't reckon you'd say that about Rudd.
But never mind all that. The big question is in what way did MT wreck the Liberal Party? That one I really want to know. _________________ �Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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I don't think I have seen it. |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Just to underline my original point, I see that Liberal cheerleader Chris Kenny from the Australian says that the reason for the massive Wentworth loss is that Tony Abbott was deposed as leader.
No joke. _________________ �Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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Tannin wrote: | Just to underline my original point, I see that Liberal cheerleader Chris Kenny from the Australian says that the reason for the massive Wentworth loss is that Tony Abbott was deposed as leader.
No joke. |
No, it's actually beyond being a joke. Abbott is the best weapon Labor has, far better than Shorten _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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^ Just so.
Realistically, they ought to split. Dutton and Abbott and co in one party (presumably merging with Bernardi's lot), Pyne, Bishop, and others in the moderate wing.
Labor should do the same: the true Labor people in one group, the technocrats and Blairites in the other.
That would leave Australia with six parties: Green, Labor, Labor Lite, Liberal, Tory, and One Nation.
Or, in left-wing to right-wing order, Labor, Labor Lite, Liberal,and Tory, with the Greens and One Nation both being harder to place. The Greens have poor credentials as a genuine left-wing party - and would have poorer credentials still if there was a left-wing Labor party to bleed away their more socialist-inclined supporters, leaving them as they began in Bob Brown days as an environmental party above all else. And One Nation, Like Katter's lot, have a lot of traditional leftist policies.
This would leave us with several interesting and worthwhile coalition government possibilities. For example, Labor, Labor Lite, and Liberal. Or Labor Lite, Liberal and Green.
Liberal, Tory, and One Nation would work but not for long - they'd get kicked out pretty quick smart. The same applies to Labor, Labor Lite and Green.
Australia is an overwhelmingly centrist nation. It has always been about a contest for the sensible centre. Whoever can occupy that middle ground is always going to be best placed to form a government. Turnbull talked the talk. My expectation is that Boring Bill will walk the walk. _________________ �Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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^ It just occurred to me that I completely ignored the Nationals in that analysis. Which, on reflection, seems to be just and fitting. _________________ �Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
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