Offensive Liberalism

I was, as a youth intrigued by politics, attracted to the state ‘beliefs’ of Australia’s Liberal Party. I note that on their website, those stated beliefs have not changed much:

We believe in the inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples; and we work towards a lean government that minimises interference in our daily lives; and maximises individual and private sector initiative.

We believe in government that nurtures and encourages its citizens through incentive, rather than putting limits on people through the punishing disincentives of burdensome taxes and the stifling structures of Labor's corporate state and bureaucratic red tape.

We believe in those most basic freedoms of parliamentary democracy - the freedom of thought, worship, speech and association.

We believe in a just and humane society in which the importance of the family and the role of law and justice is maintained.

We believe in equal opportunity for all Australians; and the encouragement and facilitation of wealth so that all may enjoy the highest possible standards of living, health, education and social justice.

We believe that, wherever possible, government should not compete with an efficient private sector; and that businesses and individuals - not government - are the true creators of wealth and employment.

They represent philosophical Liberalism, the value of which I have since come to doubt. What they don’t represent is the practical values of Australia’s Liberals.

The Liberal Party I finally abandoned during the 1970’s was already drifting from its roots and to the right. To be sure, it still attracted true ‘liberals’, those who follow those beliefs stated above.

George Bush and Dick Cheney would find a happy home in the Australian Liberal Party, since it has become dominated by neo-conservatives of like minds.

I fell out with the party when I protested to a State Council over the efforts to recruit members to the John Birch Society. I won that battle with overt recruitment being stamped out. I lost the war because I had become part of a dangerously outnumbered ‘wets’ faction.

I still get a smile out of being called, on the same day by different people, both a fascist and a pinko. No one ever accused the rabid right of being discerning in their insults.

The Party is still very much in the business of sidelining dissenters. Just in the past week a number of NSW Party members have been given membership suspensions for speaking out about internal party corruption. There are more to come, including former Liberal MPs.

The NSW branch is now dominated by a group known as ‘The Uglies’, a largely right wing Christian power base. They achieved monopoly power through branch stacking and obviously intend to preserve it by silencing dissenters.

The Federal Liberal Government, led by John Howard, have shown their divergence from the stated beliefs in dubious legislation it has pushed through parliament.

Tax of course, like their US Republican friends, increasingly favours the wealthy and marginalises the majority. The justification, that neo-liberal catch phrase, is the discredited ‘trickle down effect’. It does not trickle down and never will.

In Australia, like the US, profits are not put back into the country but invested offshore to ensure greater profits.

The speed with which Howard’s government joined the Bush crew in international conflict says nothing for those stated beliefs. Australia saw no threat until Howard created one.

I am most definitely not a Liberal, even if I once thought I was. Neither are my more compassionate US friend’s liberals!

For all that I can sympathise with those on the left of US politics, it is only left in relation to the greater tendency to the right. Tame stuff indeed!

I am starting to believe that the real left was wiped out in an act bordering on political genocide. Through McCarthyism and beyond, those doyens of the left, the Guthries and Steinbecks have been wiped off the map.

But there remains a stream of readily rejects the excesses of the right, who crave a more humane and caring society.

I’m not sure that it is a dream that any of the worlds major political players can deliver on. The body politic seems to have trapped itself in self serving greed, blinded to the utter responsibility which their authority vests in them.

The best we can realistically hope for is a few regimes whose vision is a little fairer, but I’m not holding my breath.