If centre-left politics continues to play it safe and avoid confronting the fundamental flaws of the neoliberalist economic system, then their time in power will be brief.
Maybe the horrors of going far right have to be gone through again before the world wakes up (again). I have given up on the Left as a group. Actually we don’t seem to have any Leftist governments anywhere anymore. Starter is pissweak and so is Albanese. Watching them appease Trump is vomitous. Hard thing for a life long socialist to observe. I am going to batten down as much as possible.
We must all be vigilant. Vote. Make sure you understand how preferences work. Tell your friends about the danger. Point out what trump is doing. Don’t let the media normalise it. Compare what trump is doing to what Australian politicians are doing. Make sure everyone you know knows. And then try and get them to tell their friends.
We are in Australia. But who’d have thought even last year we’d be seeing a new fascism in the US. Also be optimistic. These things rarely last long. DL
The ALP’s deference to the LNP has resuscitated what should have been a broken party after the defeat of 2022. Instead of collaborating with the independents and the Greens and cutting the LNP out, we get the bipartisan consensus on a compromised NACC, zero accountability for Robodebt, draconian anti refugee legislation and bad electoral reform laws.
The ALP has caved to the LNP’s premise of the world and has to do backflips to justify their policies which tend to be decaf versions of the LNP.
I think ‘the left’ is a very different beast to what it was when I was young. Then its focus appeared to be ‘workers rights’, however you conceptualise that term, but certainly bound up with economic policies that benefited working class families and people in general. Now? All of a sudden I look around and ‘the left’ is all about stuff like ‘men can be women’ and ‘let’s create a safe space so peoples feelings aren’t hurt’ and ‘if you disagree with me you are a fascist’. I don’t understand the left anymore. So I left the left.
I agree with that analysis. The old binary system was always a gafftaped structure on a sandy basis, held up merely by fear of the other side. Some newer analyses tries to date it to either 1989 or even 2000, but if you look at the first split in Australian Labor - in 1917: some of the left (including two Prime ministers go to the right over allegiance to the empire and conscription. We can go further back too. I think after 1989 it becomes apparent that the binary system of left/right - let’s call it tending to socialism vs tending to individualism - is no longer as useful as it could be.
We are now trying to deal with a new world while the old world, dying badly, screaming and kicking - electing Trump, trying to justify Duttton, Poleviere in Canada. Le Pen in France and the mess that is Brexit - holds on for grim life as the inevitable tide of history washes it away.
I’m not really a Whig historian but the ‘bad’ alternative looks back. A real change would involve a future looking right. And yes I know Musk attempts that. But nearly everyone has seen through him.
In short it’s only mainstream media that really divides us into left/ right because they can’t handle nuance subtlety or a post 1989 world.
Not sure that the ALP learnt the right lessons from the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd and the failure of Shorten’s Policy Platform at the 2019. To the point that the ALP is afraid of its own shadow. I sort of understand their reticence to proceed ambitiously in their first term. But … they have not pronounced where they will go in their second and third terms if they get the opportunity. So I fear that they are not winning over the electors who the ALP will need for those second and third terms
Thanks for your comment, Mark. Progressive parties can only succeed with bold vision. And even if they don’t succeed, bold vision gives a legacy - look at Whitlam and Keating. Timidity serves no one but the opposition. DL
Whitlam, yes, but Keating, I’m not so sure. As an ex lefty who thought that Marx’s analysis of 19th century English capitalism was spot on (not his solution though, which I saw as disastrous) I don’t see Keating in any way as moving toward an economic system that was fair and equitable. Modern ALP, to me, are just political opportunists. They should be abandoned. Am I wrong?
Maybe the horrors of going far right have to be gone through again before the world wakes up (again). I have given up on the Left as a group. Actually we don’t seem to have any Leftist governments anywhere anymore. Starter is pissweak and so is Albanese. Watching them appease Trump is vomitous. Hard thing for a life long socialist to observe. I am going to batten down as much as possible.
The US situation is stressing me out. My partner says ‘don’t worry - you’re in Australia.’ And I look at him like he has a hole in his head.
We must all be vigilant. Vote. Make sure you understand how preferences work. Tell your friends about the danger. Point out what trump is doing. Don’t let the media normalise it. Compare what trump is doing to what Australian politicians are doing. Make sure everyone you know knows. And then try and get them to tell their friends.
We are in Australia. But who’d have thought even last year we’d be seeing a new fascism in the US. Also be optimistic. These things rarely last long. DL
Great analysis Eddy and David.
The ALP’s deference to the LNP has resuscitated what should have been a broken party after the defeat of 2022. Instead of collaborating with the independents and the Greens and cutting the LNP out, we get the bipartisan consensus on a compromised NACC, zero accountability for Robodebt, draconian anti refugee legislation and bad electoral reform laws.
The ALP has caved to the LNP’s premise of the world and has to do backflips to justify their policies which tend to be decaf versions of the LNP.
I agree. Isn’t it a paradox that the LNP and the Libs are the party of change and embracing new ideas? The ALP has no idea.
I think ‘the left’ is a very different beast to what it was when I was young. Then its focus appeared to be ‘workers rights’, however you conceptualise that term, but certainly bound up with economic policies that benefited working class families and people in general. Now? All of a sudden I look around and ‘the left’ is all about stuff like ‘men can be women’ and ‘let’s create a safe space so peoples feelings aren’t hurt’ and ‘if you disagree with me you are a fascist’. I don’t understand the left anymore. So I left the left.
I agree with that analysis. The old binary system was always a gafftaped structure on a sandy basis, held up merely by fear of the other side. Some newer analyses tries to date it to either 1989 or even 2000, but if you look at the first split in Australian Labor - in 1917: some of the left (including two Prime ministers go to the right over allegiance to the empire and conscription. We can go further back too. I think after 1989 it becomes apparent that the binary system of left/right - let’s call it tending to socialism vs tending to individualism - is no longer as useful as it could be.
We are now trying to deal with a new world while the old world, dying badly, screaming and kicking - electing Trump, trying to justify Duttton, Poleviere in Canada. Le Pen in France and the mess that is Brexit - holds on for grim life as the inevitable tide of history washes it away.
I’m not really a Whig historian but the ‘bad’ alternative looks back. A real change would involve a future looking right. And yes I know Musk attempts that. But nearly everyone has seen through him.
In short it’s only mainstream media that really divides us into left/ right because they can’t handle nuance subtlety or a post 1989 world.
Not sure that the ALP learnt the right lessons from the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd and the failure of Shorten’s Policy Platform at the 2019. To the point that the ALP is afraid of its own shadow. I sort of understand their reticence to proceed ambitiously in their first term. But … they have not pronounced where they will go in their second and third terms if they get the opportunity. So I fear that they are not winning over the electors who the ALP will need for those second and third terms
Thanks for your comment, Mark. Progressive parties can only succeed with bold vision. And even if they don’t succeed, bold vision gives a legacy - look at Whitlam and Keating. Timidity serves no one but the opposition. DL
Whitlam, yes, but Keating, I’m not so sure. As an ex lefty who thought that Marx’s analysis of 19th century English capitalism was spot on (not his solution though, which I saw as disastrous) I don’t see Keating in any way as moving toward an economic system that was fair and equitable. Modern ALP, to me, are just political opportunists. They should be abandoned. Am I wrong?
Fair comment. I do feel that Keating’s embrace of neo liberalism, no matter how tempered, was a blot on his legacy.