Mattys Modern Life
Beware the “new conservatives” motivated by ambition and ego, is the title of John Hewson’s latest column; as though this motivation is somehow limited only to those he calls the “new conservatives”…
This article has it all: blind hypocrisy, ad hominem attacks, cries of “racist” and “bigot”, and even attacks on people for being critical of climate change. It almost parodies itself, it is just that bad. What a fantastic display of arrogance from an old member of the establishment. He doesn’t even attempt to understand those he is attacking, instead preferring tiresome old clichés and outdated Left-wing rhetoric.
The Liberal Party is generally seen to be conservative, along with the National Party, Family First Party, One Nation, Democratic Labor Party, Shooters Party and Katter’s Australian Party. However, not conservative enough for the likes of Cory Bernardi, George Christensen, Tony Abbott and others in these parties who are threatening, more or less, to break away, perhaps even forming yet another “purer” conservative force.
Has Hewson not seen the guy leading the party? Has he not heard of Malcolm Turnbull? Has he not seen the direction this man is taking the party, i.e., to the Left (although, to be fair, you could argue Turnbull is taking it in no direction at all)? Conservatives in the Liberal party are genuinely concerned with the direction in which their party is going. Many can clearly see that Turnbull is failing to address legitimate concerns of many people, not just in the base of the party, but in the country.
Above all, has he not seen that the Liberal party are leaking votes to One Nation and other parties with more “conservative” policies? There is a reason people are abandoning the Liberal party in droves; it’s that the Liberal party are abandoning their conservative base. Is Hewson really suggesting that the Liberals flat-out ignore a large sector of the population who vote for them, simply because that sector don’t agree with him, or because they are “racist” (even if the allegation was accurate)?
Just read the following sentence for a full display of the utter contempt this man holds for the views of those he is discussing:
“Much of the recent momentum has been emboldened by Brexit, the Trump victory, and the resurgence of Hanson, allowing these proponents to cherry-pick the anti-immigration, anti-Islam, anti-Muslim, anti-climate elements of these events as fundamental elements of their ‘new conservatism’.”
Cherry-picking? Is he seriously calling the highlighting of three of the biggest issues in today’s political climate “cherry-picking”? As though there were hundreds of concerns equally raised, and these three just happened to be the ones that the “new conservatives” in Australia just decided, all in unison, to pick on.
He missed another one there as well: concerns of the economy, especially those of a balanced budget and the effects of trade policies on the economy and particularly the manufacturing sector, not to mention the sale of major assets to foreign governments. This is equally part of the current discussion amongst those of us who cannot be defined as Left Wing. But he misses this, presumably because he wouldn’t be able to accuse conservatives of “cherry-picking” if he didn’t. Had he pointed this issue out, he would have listed every single major issue that those on the Right are discussing. How could he belittle their concerns then?
How could he write fantastic little virtue-signals like this:
“There are various ‘anti-establishment’ elements, but they are basically mechanisms for racism and bigotry, designed to incite race hate, and to hopefully close our borders to Muslims, at the very least.”
You hear that, everyone? Anyone who has concerns over Islam is just a racist and a bigot. No need to discuss anything with them, no need to address their concerns. They are just racists so they can shut up now.
You’d think these fools would have learned their lesson by now, but nope, they have not. Rather than sit back and reassess their strategies, they have simply doubled down on the same old rhetoric.
John Hewson, if you are reading this (which you likely aren’t because “alt-right” or whatever) please read this very carefully, IT — DOES — NOT — WORK. Calling people “racists” for being worried about a legitimate threat is not a good way to win people over. Nor does it shame these people into changing their views. If anything, it simply strengthens them.
Those who aren’t racists know they aren’t and don’t care, those who are racists don’t care. It doesn’t work, John; it does not work.
In fact, all it does is invite your political opponents to troll you relentlessly. (By the way, if you haven’t heard of Ben Shapiro, I would suggest watching some of his speeches; he’s excellent and disagrees with a lot of the new Right in a way that is reasonable and without the arrogance and disdain of the plebs that the establishment can’t rid themselves of.) They can see your hypocrisy, and you cannot, John.
There are four major platform issues that a new conservative party could run on and expect success, given a little bit of intelligent and sensible leadership. Those are:
– Recognition of Islam as a genuine threat to the West and offering solutions.
– Border control, stopping of people coming here illegally and reducing the number of people immigrating here dramatically.
– Climate Change, running on a completely sceptical platform.
– Sound fiscal management, running a surplus, cutting spending, cutting taxes, cutting red tape and getting the government out of the way of business.
No, these are not “cherry-picked”; these are legitimate concerns held by ordinary people all over the Western, i.e., civilised, world.
The establishment will keep on the attack. It is important now, more than ever, to realise exactly what these attacks are: nothing but desperate attempts at defending their own elite privileged position against a growing tide of resentment towards them. Don’t be fooled by the language or the moves to censor opposing voices as “fake news”.
They are losing.
Mattys Modern Life writes regularly and brilliantly at https://www.minds.com/MattysModernLife.
Photo by RubyGoes 