There was a piece from Noel Pearson deriding the devisive yet effective campaign tactics of W advisor Karl Rove in the Oz on the weekend. He was saying it does more harm than good in the fight against terror, a threat he regards as real. He's right about the threat but i'm afraid it would be far worse for the war on terror if John Kerry had got in than a bunch of NYT reading whingers get upset. Unity is not everything. You can't have peace at any price.
Pearson contends that because division is bad, conservatives should stop pointing out disgareements and stess the points of unity. Basically he is saying that conservatives need to agree with progressives on certain points of difference in order to win them over. The fact is that the progressive left are totally convinced they are right on every point and cannot be won over by persuasion. The only thing we can do is push them out the debate by appealing to the broader electorate, let them complain, carry on doing the job properly and then when we get the results they never could turn around and say 'See! Told you we were right. Are you going to shut up now?' I doubt they will shut up even then. They will indulge in fantasy that because of their greater sensitivity to diverse opinion (read: spinelessness) they would have done it better. Nevertheless tangible results are a alot harder to argue with and this approach gives us the greatest change that they will eventually see reality. Unity should be on conservative terms.
Unity is best served if the people who are wrong are shown to be wrong, and eventually come to agree with those that are right. If those that are right back down in the face of herd pressure from those that are wrong then we all suffer. Sure we will all suffer together, maybe that's what the left means by unity, but eventually because of the enaction of bad policy disunity and demoralisation ensues.
My beef is not with Pearson, who has done more than anyone in the country to help JH this year. I do however think Howard should ignore his implied advice at this stage.
John Howard is going to have to fight this campaign the way he has fought all the others, mercilessly. He is going to have to divide and conquer. He must make Labor feel they do not represent Australian people. His attempts at a wedge have failed so far, because of Rudd's me-too clone-ass policy making, but there are elements of policy that the public supports that the ALP could never have introduced because of their left-wing bias. The NT intervention is the prime example. I dare any Labor supporter to argue that a Labor government would have changed the land-tenue arrangements and removed the permit-holders sceme. Howard is bringing indigenous and mainstreams society's together by ignoring lefties.
The left-wing definition of unity is that everyone agrees with them. This flows from their religious fanatical moral-superiority. They fail to see in all aspects of Australian life apart from the media they are an out-of-touch elitist minority. Even in culture they are now irrelevant. Go ahead, try and write a joke that uses guilt as it's prime motivator and see if the crown laughs. Nobody wants to go back to the PC 90's, not even the lefties.
In the 90's the only people who used the word 'lefty' were the right-wing of the ALP. It was not a general term of derision. This just goes to show. That Howard has won the culture wars by refusing to respond to the guilt-based philosophy of the 60's that engulfed every generation after the war up to gen-Y. The reason why these kids nowadays are so carefree is because Howard has made a country where they can fly the flag without fear. I dont believe for a second the gen-Y are against Howard. My girlfriend is gen-Y and she hates Rudd's guts.
So here's the point i'm getting at. Rudd has captured the campaign by portaying Howard as dishonest. Howard is a politician. People expect the you would duck and cover from the odd question. The important thing is that the same standards (however low) should be applied to Rudd. Howard and co have chickened out from tarring Rudd with the same brush. They have failed to capitalise on the Brian Burke affair, strippergate and shreddergate. In all these cases it is obvious that Rudd was bullshitting. They allowed the Rudd camp to offer Howard's record on WMD, children overboard and AWB as a defense. Rudd was merciless on these issues. He behaves like a man that never lied in his life. This attitude works. Howard has to do the same, even if he has lied - not that i'm concedeing that for a second. The Coalition are behaving as if they feel guilty by not hitting back. The are not guilty, they are polticians who do what it takes to get the right thing done for the Aussie people. They are realistic altruists - OK maybe not Turnbull, who's just a tosser - but Howard is a good man. He retains my total loyalty. Howard knows what right for the country and does what's right for the country and says what's on his mind better than anyone. That is honesty. People see his as less cunning than Rudd. His lack of nuance makes him easier to read.
I'm getting to my point. The point is that it's time for Howard to embrace the negative labels everyone gives him and say something that voices the underlying concerns, not matter now un-PC, of the Aussie public. He has to be the one to say what scares people, but is true. This is the reason why Howard is PM. Not the economic measure. Howard is a values leader. A conviction politician. His economic success is an indirect result of his values, which are good and right and in-tune with the hearts of Aussies.
My point is this. Howard has to attack Rudd for being to close to China.
The YouTube video showing Rudd as Mao exposed the soft-underbelly of Rudd's support amongst the intelligencia. You could not have asked for a better campaign gift than that. The FAIRFAX press gave it a long run. People are scared of Rudd, and they like laughing at him. Sure they like laughing at Howard too, but that's good. The same standard is applying. Rudd should be exposed to the same riducule the Howard has had to endure. Backing off simply allows him to appear above it, when his famous glass-jaw demonstrates he is not.
People will accuse Howard of being racist. So what? It's the same white people doing this who have been saying the same thing since 1996. It's not about Chinese people, it's definitely not about Chinese Australians. It's about a country CHINA, you know, the communist dictatorship. Taking a position against China's anti-democratic ways is actually sympathetic toward chinese people, both in China and here. I'm guessing that most Chinese people in Australia are here because they dont want to be in China. They dont like its tyranny and or its language. Most speak Cantonese not Mandarin like Rudd. Mandarin is the language of Imperial Beijing, not the Chinese diaspora.
China is not a democracy. It's president is a Communist Dicatator. Rudd is a too close to them in his thinking. He is creepy. He's a stalinist. He invited this attack by by-passing the constitution and presuming to speak on behalf of the Australian people to the Chinese President IN MANDARIN!! This is a very clumsy diplomatic signal. This is sucking up. Australia is an English speaking country. We have an awful lot more in common with the USA than China.
Keating sold his pig farm to the Indonesians for a killing and then went into bat for Suharto, voted the most currupt politician ever! Will Rudd do the same. Will he sell this country out to China, or will he just take the same heavy-handed approach to economic management by playing favourites in business, as we are seeing with Telstra already and the broadband rollout. Will he just take the same anti-individualistic philoshophy to teaching your kids? Will he take the socialist scalpel to health.
When Doc Evatt waved a letter from Krushchev in parliament Menzies knew 'the lord hath delivered him into (his) hands.' Rudd has done the same thing. Menzies stayed in power by rightly painting the ALP out to be communists. Our prosperity and our freedoms are once again at risk. It is Howard's duty to run the biggest fear campaign the world has ever seen. As Hockey says it's right to fear the facts.
Howard has tried the soft route. There is nothing left to lose. Wimpy condidates can delete Howard from their election pamphlets if they like. I dispise this kind of disloyalty. Howard's image can hardly get worse amongst those who should show him respect. The bell has tolled and it's time for Howard and the Australian people to show their true colours.
Howard is the devil you know. Ask yourself do you trust Rudd or do your just hate Howard? How much is your pride worth? Just remember when you vote for a Socialist you screw up my life too.
