http://www.corybernardi.com/2012/05/priorities.html
It is with morbid fascination that most Australians watch the political death throes of Julia Gillard. The press gallery can smell blood as she lurches from one crisis to the next.
That governments and prime ministers will face challenges during their time in office is unquestioned. However, for any leader to demonstrate such consistently poor judgment as Julia Gillard has is almost unparalleled in our political history.
Gillard is the subject of mirth within the Australian electorate. But she is not the subject of the regular lampooning afforded to almost every politician; she has entered into a realm all of her own.
People no longer pay attention when she speaks. The most ardent political junkies hit the mute button at the mere threat of her droning and insincere words.
Even the most partisan Labor supporters find it difficult to justify how it came to be that their once great Party became captured by such a caricature of a leader.
The answer was suggested to me by a reformed Young Labor apparatchik. He put forward an interesting theory that Labor's woes are structural and caused by their two warring factions: the left and the right.
He posits that the Labor right have become a formidable campaign machine and run the modern day Labor Party.
They are very effective in political messaging, exploiting their opponents’ weaknesses and winning election campaigns; so much so that campaigning has become their only raison d’etre. Accordingly, the right have no real policy passion or agenda save the desire to get into power for power’s sake
The other side of Labor is the left faction which comprise political refugees from the socialist movement and the Fabian Society. They still believe in the failed social democratic experiment where government knows better than the individual, the family and the business owner.
The left have little, if any, practical understanding....................READ THE REST HERE
It is with morbid fascination that most Australians watch the political death throes of Julia Gillard. The press gallery can smell blood as she lurches from one crisis to the next.
That governments and prime ministers will face challenges during their time in office is unquestioned. However, for any leader to demonstrate such consistently poor judgment as Julia Gillard has is almost unparalleled in our political history.
Gillard is the subject of mirth within the Australian electorate. But she is not the subject of the regular lampooning afforded to almost every politician; she has entered into a realm all of her own.
People no longer pay attention when she speaks. The most ardent political junkies hit the mute button at the mere threat of her droning and insincere words.
Even the most partisan Labor supporters find it difficult to justify how it came to be that their once great Party became captured by such a caricature of a leader.
The answer was suggested to me by a reformed Young Labor apparatchik. He put forward an interesting theory that Labor's woes are structural and caused by their two warring factions: the left and the right.
He posits that the Labor right have become a formidable campaign machine and run the modern day Labor Party.
They are very effective in political messaging, exploiting their opponents’ weaknesses and winning election campaigns; so much so that campaigning has become their only raison d’etre. Accordingly, the right have no real policy passion or agenda save the desire to get into power for power’s sake
The other side of Labor is the left faction which comprise political refugees from the socialist movement and the Fabian Society. They still believe in the failed social democratic experiment where government knows better than the individual, the family and the business owner.
The left have little, if any, practical understanding....................READ THE REST HERE
