With all the bruhaha over the Liberal Party meltdown, far too little attention is being given to what was a masterful stroke on the way to the thousand year censored Rudd Reich.
Rudd caused the issues in the Liberal Party, although at the same time, Turnbull was stupid enough to take the bait. By constantly hammering away at the Liberal Party, Rudd forced Turnbull to negotiate on the ETS, knowing full well what would eventually happen.
I may not like Rudd, but by god he’s a clever politician, and credit where due.
Turnbull should resign, not simply because he tried to railroad ETS support through the Liberal Party room, but because he even decided to negotiate to begin with.
Everyone knew there was divisions, and the stated policy previously was that the Libs would wait until after Copenhagen. But Turnbull couldn’t stand even the most basic pressure in the media from Rudd to force his hand, and caved quickly.
Despite his previous role as the head of the ARM, I don’t actually dislike Turnbull as a potential PM. He is most definitely smart, and well qualified to handle the finances of the country. But as a politician he has failed once again, and nothing will save him now.
The question though is can the Libs save anything coming into the next election?
I remember when Hockey was the NSW Young Liberal President (long term readers will know that I’m a former Liberal.) He would sell his sole for power then, and I have no doubt that he will now.
Tony Abbott…well, the positive is that he’s a man of his convictions, and although I don’t support all his convictions, I’d rather a leader or PM who stands by what he believes in vs sell them out at the drop of a hat.
But likewise Abbott suffers the same affliction that some in the NSW Right suffer: a contradiction between their economic and social policy. They believe in the market and small Government (well in theory, the only difference between Howard and Rudd on socialism is who gets the money, as opposed to not spending a lot of it at all), but likewise they seek to impose a Christian right view point on morals.
Of course the Liberal left is the rank opposite: they believe and support the nanny state, but likewise have a more libertarian view on social policy.
My problem has always been that I fit neither, and it was one of the reasons I was happy to quit the Liberal Party many years ago. I support the right on economics, but I support the left on social policy.
I shouldn’t have to make that choice, because both wings of the Liberal Party contradict each other. If you are for free markets, you should be for liberal social policy (because the idea of small Government should extend all policies.) If you believe in socialism, then perhaps you should believe in interfering in social policy.
There have been some smaller parties challenging the norm. The LDP, who I’ll always happily vote for, unfortunately seem destined to never gain a seat in Australia. The Pirate Party (of which I’m a provisional member) is a two issue party, but both issues fit nicely with my libertarian view of the world. Even the Sex Party is getting there…well, aside from their ridiculous policy that 50% of all seats in parliament should be for women. Don’t get me wrong, if 90% of parliament were women, I’d have no problem, but imposing quotas based on sex vs merit = epic fail and is indeed sexism in itself.
I’m nearly at the point that I might not take my next vote seriously. I’d say I’d dummy vote except that saying that is illegal in Australia (another travesty in itself.) All I see is gray when what we need is something better.
