Since the recent election there’s a lot of commentary saying the Liberal party needs to reconsider its policies and re-align with its core values which, when enumerated sound very centrist.
I just watched ABC’s q&a, there was a few interesting points. There was a strong consensus that Trump style culture wars are toxic in Australian politics, and that it’s unlikely future candidates would take that route.
I don’t want to gloat infront of the seppos, but I think what’s happening during this aftermath is very salient for all of those “both sides are bad” Americans.
In October last year there seemed to be a lot of users saying that they didn’t want to reward the dems with their vote, and that the only way to communicate with the party was to withhold their vote.
I think what’s happening right now in Australia demonstrates the importance of voting.
Labor might not be left enough for you personally, but each time the libs are defeated they need to move to the left to be viable, and Labor will have to move further left to differentiate themselves. That is to say, the spectrum of acceptable opinions is moving to the left in an observable manner, right now.
Just thought I’d check in with you after the Liberals voted for Ley as their new moderate leader.
As I said previously:
You realise this is the same person who denied that the Liberal Party has a problem with women voters, and defended their recent campaign with the genius line of “women drive cars too”? She will be knifed well before the party makes any significant shift back to the centre. You are clutching at straws if you think Sussan Ley as leader is evidence of some progressive shift in Australia.
Your comments are contrary to most other commentary.
Karvellas asserted the inverse just this morning: Ley represents a significant shift to the centre.
You’re right in that she will probably get knifed in the coming months. “See, we tried centrism and it didn’t work”.
However, even the liberals recognising that there’s a need to demonstrate that they tried centrism is significant.
I’m happy to acknowledge that your opinion is unchanged. For my own part I think everything that has transpired over the last week demonstrates a change of trajectory.
The vote was only 29 to 25 in favour of Ley, and 2 of her biggest supporters are senators who are about to finish up. It could potentially be as easy as switching a couple of votes to flip the balance of power inside the party room. Not to mention Price didn’t even run for deputy, which suggests she is waiting for a better opportunity after a conservative wins the leadership. It’s just denying reality to pretend that this is evidence of them accepting a shift to the centre, they are still a massively divided party.
That’s pretty much what I said.
That’s the opposite of what Karvellas said.