Concerning Australia’s upcoming elections, the indispensable Joanne Nova expresses one of my own convictions:
With an election likely for July 2nd, the hottest topic in Australian politics right now is how to vote. So put your best case forward here. Hammer this out. Will Turnbull promise anything to win back the Delcons — the angry conservatives? The time to ask is now, and if the Liberal base are not prepared to vote against him, they have nothing to negotiate.The elephant in 2016 is the ferocious boiling anger among betrayed conservatives and small government libertarians, divided over whether they can bear to vote for Turnbull (a Liberal*) who has been called the best leader the Labor Party never had. Delcons was tossed at the so-called “Delusional” Conservatives. But they took up the badge. Defcons means the Defiant ones.
Right now, and since September, I’m a Delcon, like Tim Blair, Merv Bendle, and James Allan. Convince me otherwise. (We love you Miranda but you are wrong.)
The issue: Is it better to vote for the lesser of two evils and hope a Turnbull-led party can be reformed after a win, or is it better to think long term, take the medicine and rebuild in opposition — and is there a realistic third choice?
Winning at any cost is a loss. It’s a matter of principle. As long as Turnbull is in charge there will be no real alternative for conservative libertarians. If the “true liberal base” will put up with Turnbull and support power for Liberals regardless of principles then their vote is truly worth nothing. I’m not just talking about putting small parties or independents ahead of the Liberal candidate, but the nuclear option — sending the preferences to Labor, despite its ghastly policies [and Tanya Plibersek, says DavidE, who incidentally leans more to the Miranda-line].
[A footnote: *Liberals? For foreigners, “liberal” in Australia still means something like a real liberal — a free-market, small-government player. In the US progressives stole the term and the silly Republicans let them misuse it.]
Bravo! Election campaigns tend to promote personalities over policy. But policy is what matters – and as we saw from the Nixon, Bush I, and Bush II years, a self-styled “conservative” who, in defiance of his supposed principles, compromises with the Left’s agenda is actually worse than allowing the Left to have its way, undisguised and undecorated. It gives people the wrong things to react and rebel against.
We wouldn’t have Obama or the Bernie Sanders movement today had three of the last five Republican presidents actually governed according to conservative principles. The GOP compounded the damage by nominating John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. Should the 2016 Republican National Convention repeat rather than repent its errors, there will no longer be any question what the party really values above all else.
3 comments:
I like Trump for various reasons but will not be grief stricken if one of the Dems gets to be president.
I like Trump for three or four of his opinions on some important matters but I don't see that he has any interest in reducing the size of the federal government or that he could hold a 10-minute conversation on how the Supreme Court betrayed us by handing all power to the federal government. Not having a man with his views on immigration in office would be a great loss but there is something to be said for having four more years of rule by ultra leftists. There is much travail for the nation in the near future and it can be argued that the fools who vote Democrat should experience the full, final, and complete disaster that leftist policies entail.
The greatness of the nation was in its Constitution but it's clear many millions of our fellow citizens are indifferent to it. I hate to think that a Dem like Sanders or Clinton could do even more damage but nothing will change in the country until all those millions understand what personal privation is all about. Logic and history lessons have failed to turn the ship around.
If Trump is in the saddle when the economic storm arrives it is in the nature of the electorate to think that if it hits 45 days into his term it will be the fault of the Republicans. In fairness to Trump, I don't think there was one of the initial Republican contenders this time around who has an understanding of the legal catastrophe that has overtaken us excepting, maybe, Paul and Jindal. The catastrophe in store is no doubt bigger than even the best of minds to avert or overcome.
Alas, given the general understanding of the electorate and politicians who come from that electorate, any period of regroupement, and quality wilderness time while Hillary flails around fighting oppressive male views of overweight lesbians isn't likely to lead to a revitalized "Republicanism." Frankly, we are about to see exactly what Solzhenitsyn meant by "the pitiless crowbar of events."
I will vote for Trump if only to prevent the Hildabeast from winning. As far as I am concerned Trump is Hillary Lite. But then again I have no confidence in democracy.
A form of government that allows the law abidding and law breaking an equal vote, along with taxpayers and welfare pimps. Tell me the founding fathers envisioned a government run by a professional political class; influenced by foreign donations; and access to government determuined by political contributions.
America is doomed. And when it dies the world will revert to a long dark night till the spirit of freedom re-emerges somewhere. But I doubt it will be in the Western world. It has decided on suicide.
What difference, at this point, does it make if Trump wins or not? Ooops… it actually does make a difference… However, no candidate I know, in my lifetime has done more to reveal the corruption in our institutions, mainly Congress; or has done more to shine light on the bias of the media and Hollywood; or has stirred ‘regular’ Americans to awaken to what is required of them to change the direction of the Nation and stop the invasion. (BTW, my computer won’t connect with Joanne Nova… is her site secure?)
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