The demise of a political party

Amongst other tomes, my current reading also includes “Tyranny of the Minority: How to Reverse an Authoritarian Turn, and Forge a Democracy for All”, by Steven  Levitsky and Daniel  Ziblatt (Penguin, October 2023, ISBN 978-0-241-99659-1, Amazon). 

I’m only one chapter in, but I was struck by the theme of political parties having to learn how to lose elections, which is about preparing to win the next election by adjusting policies etc - and, crucially, relies on the belief that it is possible to win a future election. 

That is the basis of enabling a peaceful transfer of power, and the examples where that almost didn’t happen are quite striking (the book is well worth reading - either buy it, or borrow a copy through a proper library).

Without having read any comments by the authors on the topic, the attack that former potus45 made to attempt to stop that transfer of power in the USA in 2020 are even more pernicious than I realised - and I was already seeing them as democracy threatening. 

However, I want to come closer to home for this post, with one coalition of two political parties in mind. 

Before I consider that coalition/those parties, though, it is worth reflecting on the history of changes to political parties here in Australia.

Even in my life I have seen the demise of:   the Australian Democrats,   the lingering demise of the DLP   ...   and the rise of:   the Australian Greens,   a far right party of hate (sometimes referred to as an outsourcing of that hate by the neoliberal party under the evil John Howard) and similar  offshoots,   and   independents - some  loosely organised. 

Lists of the history of political parties in Australia can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_historical_political_parties_in_Australia&oldid=1192606514   and   https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_political_parties_in_Australia&oldid=1195252832#History . 

From those, and my life experience, I wish to make the following points: 

• the Australian Democrats died, in my opinion (IMO), because their elected representatives forgot that they are representatives, and got so caught up in political games.
  This showed itself in two areas: their repeated abandonment of the LGBTQIASB+ communities to political advancement in other areas, and - the more widely noticed issue - was support for the GST despite the members of the party NOT wanting that.
  At this point, every single argument about the possible value, need for, or detriment of the GST is IRRELEVANT. If you’re fixated on that, change “GST” to “gobbledygook”, and then re-read the preceding.
  The members of the Australian Democrat party told their elected representatives not to vote for a GST, and the representatives thought they could ignore the party and vote for the GST if it meant they got some other, less significant deal - just as the costs of abandoning the LGBTQIASB+ communities was ignored for the sake of other, lesser advantages ... and that led ultimately to their non-existence, through a series of steps (the name is currently used by a party which I understand has non-participatory top-down structure);
  

• the most obvious - certainly the most noisy - point of difference when the modern nation-state of Australia was formed on this invaded, occupied, but unceded continent, also known as Bandaiyan, was between (conservative) free trade and (conservative) protectionism. This is often portrayed as being a modern, progressive economy that is part of the international community   vs.   looking after people here, but I consider the broader issue of forgetting that the economy is a token of wellness for people is forgotten - the assumptions that benefits will be passed on need to be checked and challenged, as I wrote about here.
  The other significant aspect of this is that it enabled the hiding of active decisions to reject human rights.
  Our constitution was written by white supremacists who rejected the proposal to include some form of Bill of Rights so they could continue to exclude Asian people - and actually enabled the abuse of Indigenous Australians to be worsened (some Indigenous Australian  soldiers who fought in the (second) Boer  War initially reported what would be better treatment than those who fought in World War (part) One and other wars, although some were blocked from returning by the new Australia’s policies).
  See here, here, and this bio; and
  

• conservatives have exerted their political influence through a series of parties. From here:   a now defunct Liberal Party whose name has been reused by the modern neoliberal party, a Nationalist Party, and a now defunct United Australia Party whose name has been co-opted by a current far right party. They are currently acting mainly through the (modern) (neo)Liberal and National parties in a coalition, although there are more far right offshoots as well.
  

That last point is significant. Unlike the ALP, which has been in existence since the quest for workers rights in Australia in the 1890s - with some major reshaping along the way, conservative parties have morphed into new forms by either merging or being recreated as something brand new rather than rethinking what they stand for or how they will acheive their goals. 

I’ll return to that, but for now ... I consider the current main expressions of conservatism in Australia to be badly out of touch with what Australians want - especially young Australians. 

The most significant area of the cluelessness is in relation to the climate crisis, where conservatives have lost Australia a decade of action and left us with a seriously damaged international reputation as well as doing major damage to the climate - and that has been a major part of their alienation from Australia’s future: our young people. 

The backwards social values of conservatives has also, IMO, been a major problem - one that has alienated them not only from young people, but also older people (including women) who are the victims of the conservatives’ vitriol. 

I consider this has contributed to their declining vote (and I note that the ALP has also had a declining primary vote, but that is due to other issues and preferences recovers much of what has been lost) - see here and here. 

The ALP’s response to this has been to rethink policies - possibly being too progressive in the 2019 election, although I consider the unthinking acceptance of the conservative media’s propaganda was a major factor as well.

The conservative’s response has been to promote outdated social attitudes even more forcefully and engage in destructive, oppositional-at-all-costs antics - the shallowness and superficiality of which were shown by the incompetence of the Abbott government. 

And it has further disillusioned Australian voters - as shown, IMO, by the success of the “Teals”. 

I consider the conservative’s tactics reflect a possibly unconscious awareness that the chances of their future re-election are abysmal, approaching nil, and that we are witnessing their glacially slow (an appropriate pace for resisters of change, perhaps?) demise.

I don’t consider that we are at risk of the sort of large scale, organised violence that the USA saw with the 6^th  January, 2020  attempted  insurrection, although dog whistling may lead to more problems of this  sort. 

There are a few young conservative people, but I consider the only way the current conservative parties could survive would be for them to wholeheartedly accept:   (1) the existential necessity of addressing the climate crisis,   and   (2) that the 21^stcentury is going to be best built on inclusivity, meaning the old elitist social status of the upper crust is going,   and then start working towards a neoliberal-free version of capitalism and a return to things like responsible stewardship of resources, limiting inequity, social responsibility, etc.

By the way, I am OK writing about that because the current conservative social dinosaurs have shown a moth-at-the-light determination to cleave to their fossil like policies that I know they would not ever consider this ... 

Another three Federal elections and I consider the Liberal and National parties will likely not exist - or, at the very least, will not exist in the form of their current irrelevant, moribund monstrosities.

The following are also, IMO, useful to considerations on this topic:

• “Is the US Headed Towards Another Civil War? | Barbara F. Walter | TED”   https://youtu.be/Yilgr2SJ3xQ?si=S3xHqLNj7koZvAeE    The two major risk factors identified by the work described in this TED (not TEDx) talk were (1) whether the nation was a partial democracy, and (2) whether political parties in that nation are being formed around identity rather than ideology - both of which apply to the USA, and the model would have been predicted high risk of civil war in the USA in December, 2020. Also, civil wars are started by those at risk of losing social status ...   I was dubious about the claimed change of ethnicity until I looked up https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Demographics_of_the_United_States&oldid=1194963938   The commentary on what to do about these problems is interesting, and I am going to spend some time thinking about that - although I already agree with the need to address those who have been left behind, which was the working class in the USA, according to the speaker, and also the same here in Australia, based on my life experience - although some of that has a US bias. The comments about social  media are significant   
  

• “How Elites Ruined the American Left”   https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/22/elites-american-left-social-justice-00117215   ““If it’s true that the left is not appealing to the working class, then that is a failure of the left and not of the working class,” says Freddie deBoer”    which is based on   “How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement Kindle Edition”   by Fredrik deBoer   (see   https://fredrikdeboer.com/,   https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/,   https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/Fredrik-deBoer/author/B082VDQDWC,   and   https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fredrik_deBoer&oldid=1194258143)   pub.    ‎ Simon & Schuster, September 2023  
  

 

PS - this has also been published recently: 

• “Breaking out of the Quagmire - The Australian Independent Media Network”   https://theaimn.com/breaking-out-of-the-quagmire/   An interesting and, IMO, important perspective   

and 

• “Spectre of irrelevance hangs over John Pesutto as backflip on treaty blind-sides Victorian Coalition MPs | Victorian politics | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/23/john-pesutto-treaty-victoria-coalition-mp-press-conference-indigenous-australians  

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/