******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/sep/23/at-last-we-can-relax-and-stop-paying-such-strained-teeth-gritting-attention-to-politics The above is a link to a cartoon by the incomparable First Dog on the Moon, who works for the Australian edition of the Guardian Online. It says, or rather shows, in pictures in a much better way what I have been trying to tell. What strikes me about the cartoon is its absolute truth. How was the Abbott ministry even possible. This is a conservative nation but it is not the Land of the Tea Party. We do not do relisgious crainess like the Americans do. I always pointed out to my students that no Australian politicians ever said "God Bless Australia", yet American presidents have to. Then lo and behold at his farewell speech after being dumped Tony Abbott finished by saying "God bless the Commonwealth of Australia" - in one phrase he captured the British link and gave expression to his own religious fanaticism. No one commented on this first. But now we can ask, 'what was the Abbott offensive offensive all about?' To me it was a remarkable combination of the barking mad religious right and the neo-liberal radical austerians. In some ways kind of like having the Tea Party take over Washington and letting their ideological craziness have full sway. The Coalition took power at the height of the regained confidence of the neo-liberals. The soon to be treasurer Joe Hockey came back for a British visit channeling the spirits of Friedman and Hayek. In his first budget he announced "It is the dawning of the Age of Opportunity" and denounced the old order of the Age of Entitlement. The leader of the Opposition right winger Bill Shorten attacked and became massively popular. Then Shorten got worried about being so far out on the Left and made a speech to the press gallery in which he said he was still "pro-reform". This was code for saying that the Labor Party was committed to neoliberalism. From this point Shorten's popularity declined. Apart from the initial reply to the budget, the Labor Party was poorly placed to lead the opposition here. That is because they hug the Tories close on security. They are also pro-austerity but at a slower pace and they fear provoking a backlash from the religious right. Not to mention that within their own ranks there is a fair sprinkling of Catholic relics from the Cold War. So it was left to the Australian people to reject what Abbott stood for and they did so poll after poll. Only the political cowardice and ineptness of the Labor opposition kept Abbott afloat for so long. Now the new government under multi-millionaire Turnbull is carefully extracting itself from the close embrace of the religious right and the barking mad zealots. This has to be done carefully so as not to spook the crazies because they amount to at least a third of the governing coalition. This maneuver is being helped though by the cretins in the Labor Party, who are attacking the government from the right on "border security". This helps to make the people believe that the government is now returning to the centre. In the mean time the new treasurer has signaled that the cuts and attacks on the welfare state w2ill continue. The Labor Party is trapped within the logic of neoliberalism and cannot amount a coherent alternative here. So likely forecast is that if the present settings prevail there will be a victory for the coalition with an increased majority in next yrear's election. 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
