The Left on the skids in Australia (and elsewhere?)

TomF

I really hadn't been paying too much attention to the election in Australia, but was fascinated by these paragraphs that encapsulate some of the reason why The Left is spinning its wheels all around the globe.

"...it is the platform of the Labor party that is rotten. The hodge-podge of wacky environmentalists, professional victims, special sexual pleaders etc. have laid a dead hand on attempts to regard any issue, like the War on Terror, with anything approaching common sense. How else to explain why Labor should offer a country of 20 million people, living in close proximity to Indonesia, the chance to downgrade their alliance with the United States.

If the Left were thinking clearly, it would realize that the single most striking aspect of George W. Bush is how ordinary he is. There is nothing in his strategy to combat terrorism beyond a refined common sense. He represents a threat to Liberalism for precisely the reason that an everyman reacting to an extraordinary historical challenge imperils kings and hereditary elites: the prospect he may discover by success in action that royalty with its cant and obscurantism is no better than he.

Let's welcome back on to the world stage the man deemed intellectually inferior to all his Labor opponents; a person said to be singularly lacking in refinement and bereft of nuance. The man who for nearly ten years beat them all and has won another term. Australian Prime Minister John Howard."

http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/

Hobbes

Thats what I love about your posts TomF, the way they don't worry about little things like reality, or that you ever bother to back them up.

Victor

TomF wrote:

If the Left were thinking clearly, it would realize that the single most striking aspect of George W. Bush is how ordinary he is.

It's simple - the single most striking aspect of George W. Bush is how simple he is.

Hobbes

That always gets me.. the way they go on about how "ordinary" he is. Do you not think being the president of the united states that you would want your absolute best person in all of the US to represent you?

It's like saying that you should put an ordinary person into a marathon. Sure they might loose, or cheat and take the bus to win but thats what makes them a great runner.

mike65

Howard has been returned with an increased majority so he clearly was doing something right (sorry!) no doubt Blair and Bush will take some comfort in that. As for the left/right thing well thats a big one, my only observation is that at a time of crisis a left-wing government is more likely to react by wringing its hands and saying "somthing must be done" and then doing nothing.

Mike.

RuggieBear

have to say i'm not suprised Howard got in again...when i was there it struck me as quite a right leaning place and i've never met more xenophobic people, (besides some Israelis i worked with) than on the eastern Coast of Oz...

shotamoose

I know it's asking a lot to expect TomF to actually back up one of his copy-n-paste posts, but I would really, really like to know what a "special sexual pleader" is.

BuffyBot

http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/

A blog, very telling.

Redleslie2

Worst thread ever, or at least since the last time TomF cut and pasted from some crank's blog and was unable to come up with a single thought all by himself. Anyway, it's doubtful whether a consensus could be reached here or anywhere else on what labels like Left and Right mean nowadays. Instead, people make up definitions tailored to their own prejudices and use them to "prove" that their hated rival is taking a bloody good beating, even if and especially when the facts are overwhelmingly unfavourable to him.

Zombrex

TomF wrote:

"...it is the platform of the Labor party that is rotten. The hodge-podge of wacky environmentalists, professional victims, special sexual pleaders etc. have laid a dead hand on attempts to regard any issue, like the War on Terror, with anything approaching common sense."

Well when he puts it like that ... i always new it was those environmentalists who were holding back the war on terrorism. If we need to destroy a species of bird in Alaska to win the war, then by god that is what we are going to do!! :rolleyes:

TomF wrote:

How else to explain why Labor should offer a country of 20 million people, living in close proximity to Indonesia, the chance to downgrade their alliance with the United States.

How exactly does alliances with the US protect Austrialia from Indonesia based Muslim extermists?

TomF wrote:

If the Left were thinking clearly, it would realize that the single most striking aspect of George W. Bush is how ordinary he is. There is nothing in his strategy to combat terrorism beyond a refined common sense.

Well if by "common sense" the author means diverting badly needed funds and resources from internal security and prevention to a pointless and irrelivent war which has completely destablised the middle east, then yes I would agree :rolleyes:

There is nothing in his strategy to combat terrorism that approches common sense let alone goes beyond it.

arcadegame2004

I think the healthy economy was the main reason why John Howard has been re-elected. I don't think calling for increased sexual freedoms and greater concern for the environment would have been the main factor.