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The big news down here, is that we have a new Prime Minister. Abbott the Feral has been replaced by Turnbull the Smooth. The former was a strange mixture. At heart he was a Catholic Cold War Warrior. If one reads G. K. Chesterton's poem *Lepanto, *one can get something of an idea of what was at the core of Abbott's politics and persona. He was very much like how Chesterton's imagined Don Juan of Austria. Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard, Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred, Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall, The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall, The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung, That once went singing southward when all the world was young, In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid, Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade. In the poem Don John saves Christianity from the evils of Islam and Abbott too dreamed first of liberation from the Communist Heathen menace and then of saving Australia and the world from the ISIS "death cult" as he was fond of calling it. His fatal blunder was to embrace the politics of the neoliberal think tanks. To get power he knelt (literally) at Murdoch's feet and promised an austerity offensive. That combined with his otherworldly reactionary instincts alienated and bemused and, I suspect scared, Australians. Thinking on Abbott, one feels like repeating Churchill's remark about Sir Stafford Cripps, "There, but for the grace of God, goes God". Abbott called forth a non-militant but deep and persistent resistance from the people. This gave rise to an "Anybody but Abbott" movement and the right wing leader of the Australian Labor Party benefited from this reaction for a time. Now, however, the government has a leader who combines neoliberalism with social progressiveness. He is for marriage equality. He is not a global warming denier. The new polls suggest that he has captured the hearts and hopes of the "Anybody but Abbott" movement. Eventually, people will work out Turnbull. Already, he has jettisoned his commitment to marriage equality. It is well and truly on the back burner. He has also backtracked on the environment. Still, it will take time and some hard blows for the working class to abandon the hope that they have in Turnbull a boss who is a mate. But it will take time. Comradely Gary _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
