I’m convinced that the National and Liberal parties are being controlled by morons.
It seems to me that the Lib and Nats of late have been spending way too much energy listening to / taking advice from Multi-nationals businesses, local focus groups, Twitter and our biased Australian legacy media pack. The people that they are clearly not listening to is their grassroots base, their members, those interested but non-vocal individuals that Morrison referred to as the “quiet Australians”, and Menzies called the “forgotten Australians”
The Libs almost lost an election under Malcolm Turnbull, and then they did under Scott Morrison. These two inept Prime Ministers were more interested in personal promotion and ambition than actually serving the people of Australia. They both suffered from a lack of conviction and neither had a clear vision for our country that they could successfully articulate to the Australian people.. They took from the office far more than they ever gave. Turnbull and Morrison were seemingly unpopular with everyone, especially conservative voters. They were, however, at least at the beginning of their Prime Minister postings, popular with the legacy media.
Being popular with the Media does not guarantee political success, and certainly not electoral success. For example, John Hewson and Andrew Peacock were both popular with the media, but were not trusted by the conservative and swinging voters and both failed to win Government.
John Howard and Tony Abbott, however, despite being disliked by our media, especially the powerful ABC, did in fact win government as leaders, and by a large majority. Tony Abbott remained unpopular right up until he was knifed by Malcolm Turnbull, an act cheered on by the legacy media and left-leaning voters alike. But Turnbull remained unliked and untrusted by conservative voters.
The Liberal and National parties, both federal and state, are failing the “quiet Australians”. I’m sure I’m not the only one yearning for a strong, sensible and viable right-of-centre alternative, as the Libs continue moving left, just to please twitter, the ABC, and upsetting their base in the process.
For example, look at NSW, where Conservative types celebrated the new leader Dom Perrotet. Since then, internally powered self destruction of the Government continues without any sign of conservative ideology. Not to mention the celebrated elevation of Matt Keen to Deputy leader. Keen is clearly in the wrong party with progressive ideology dominating his words. and actions. Keen, never forget, actually celebrated the defeat of the Morrison government at a private party at woke leftist Peter FitzSimons.
It appears to me that today’s Liberal and National parties have abandoned their long-held guiding principles. They clearly don’t believe in smaller government. They obviously don’t believe in sensible economics, the recent state budget being a case in point. They don’t believe in reduced business compliance and complexity, They don’t believe in minimal taxation. They don’t believe in minimal regulation. They don’t believe in the sovereignty of individuals. And, sadly, it appears as though they don’t believe in the sanctity of family and community.
The Liberals no longer hold the reins in Canberra. And they only hold two state Governments, NSW and Tasmania. But, the NSW Government is actually in minority at this point, and I doubt that they will be returned at the next election this upcoming March (2023). The Libs were decimated in recent elections in Western Australia and South Australia. And in each case, the Libs have no one to blame but themselves as they failed to uphold democracy and failed to offer up any argument during the Covid crisis. They never even questioned the gross acts of liberty-destroying human rights abuses dished out on the public by narcissistic dictatorial premiers who delegated their responsibilities to unelected bureaucrats. These same unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats did not hesitate to act with narcissistic recklessness and gob-smacking impunity.
I haven’t seen any Liberal leader willing to stand up and support conservative values and ideologies - both verbally and in action - since Tony Abbott. Peter Dutton seemed to be saying the right things, until he became party leader. The silence from him since has been breathtaking.
Even British Prime Minister Boris Johnson only seemed to realise his neglect of conservative values when he spoke for the final time as PM, when he said:
‘Stand up for freedom and democracy everywhere. Cut taxes and deregulate wherever you can to make this the best place to live and invest. Focus on the road ahead but always remember to check the rear-view mirror. And remember, above all, it’s not Twitter that counts, it’s the people that sent us here.’
I think the Liberals could learn a lot from these 50 words. Until they do, I don’t think I can ever vote Liberals/Nationals again. They no longer reflect my views. They no longer reflect the ambitions of their constituents. They no longer reflect the ideology that has made Western democracies the wealthiest and healthiest nations in the world.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan- I didn’t leave the Liberal Party, it left me..
