A time to refresh Labor
"There she sits, buttered, used to gleamin' in the sun
There to greet a workin' man when his day is done
I'm gonna pack my Pa and I'm gonna pack my aunt
And take 'em on down to the Cadillac Ranch"
The song "Cadillac Ranch" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band sheds daylight on a little secret.
The common folk don't work overtime at the factory so that they can afford a shiny new hybrid car.
I don't blame them, the cheapest hybrid car available on the Australian market is the Honda Civic Hybrid at $30,000. 30 grand is heaps of money for a car, and even with all I know about global warming I wouldn't bust my arse to make the payments on something that dull.
The hybrid car services what is known as a "Niche market" and is therefore a suitable representation of where the Greens are and where Labor is going.
The Greens seem happy to be a boutique political party and are quite successful in that context. They service a charming little demographic consisting of hippies, homosexuals and doctor's wives. I may even vote for them in the coming SA election (despite not being part of the aforementioned demographic).
Labor is faced with a different situation entirely, they are the alternative federal government and they need to hit the mass market.
They are supposed to be the Ford to the Liberal Holden.
At this time the only mass market card Labour has is industrial relations. That is the only election issue where Labor have a popular position.
It isn't good enough, union membership has been in decline for decades.
Gough Whitlam saw this coming. By the 1970's unionised workers were enjoying unprecedented standards of living. Whitlam knew that worker satisfaction and general prosperity directly threatened the health of unions and with them, the ALP.
Gough, brilliantly saved Labor's bacon with his free tertiary education programme. Because degrees didn't cost anything anymore, no return on investment was required. More people studied unprofitable things like Arts, Education and Social Sciences.
These areas of study had a strong left wing bias and people with degrees in things that aren't profitable soon found a home in Labor's bosom.
Throughout the 1980's Labor did an admirable job of balancing the interests of smart, broke people against those of the blue collars. The two put together were enough to give Labor government in 1983. The Soviet Union hadn't had its arse handed to it yet, so smug academics could still get into bed with the enemy. The anti-success, tall poppy butchering principles of socialism were reasonably in tune with what Aussie common folk were thinking. It was a good time to be a Lefty
In 1989 the Berlin wall came down. There was not, surprisingly, a stampede to get into East Germany. The Socialist experiment was crumbling, and by 1991 it had been stabbed in its heart.
The academic Left had to find a new cause. Fast.
The Earth Summit in Rio occured in 1992, just a year after the Soviet Union got it's arse whupped. That's fast.
Environmental protection, together with multiculturalism became the new political fashion and the unprofitable graduates began their divergence from the working class. It wasn't too bad for a while. The blue collars didn't actively hate the environment, they just weren't interested in saving it.
The fissure became a canyon when unskilled labourers lost their jobs in economic restructing and promptly blamed it on Asians. Paul Keating took sides with the multi-cultis and Labor lost the 1996 election.
And so in 2006 we have the common people not particularly interested in a Civic Hybrid and pounding Lebos in Sydney.
Labor can't win on the environment, they need to leave that to the Greens. Heaping shit on the US like Latham did probably won't help as Australian people generally have a positive attitude towards our American cousins.
They probably need to keep the ethnic minorities in the fold to swing a few marginal seats.
They should maintain their position on industrial relations and prey that the common people like their 4 weeks annual leave more than they dislike darkies.
There to greet a workin' man when his day is done
I'm gonna pack my Pa and I'm gonna pack my aunt
And take 'em on down to the Cadillac Ranch"
The song "Cadillac Ranch" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band sheds daylight on a little secret.
The common folk don't work overtime at the factory so that they can afford a shiny new hybrid car.
I don't blame them, the cheapest hybrid car available on the Australian market is the Honda Civic Hybrid at $30,000. 30 grand is heaps of money for a car, and even with all I know about global warming I wouldn't bust my arse to make the payments on something that dull.
The hybrid car services what is known as a "Niche market" and is therefore a suitable representation of where the Greens are and where Labor is going.
The Greens seem happy to be a boutique political party and are quite successful in that context. They service a charming little demographic consisting of hippies, homosexuals and doctor's wives. I may even vote for them in the coming SA election (despite not being part of the aforementioned demographic).
Labor is faced with a different situation entirely, they are the alternative federal government and they need to hit the mass market.
They are supposed to be the Ford to the Liberal Holden.
At this time the only mass market card Labour has is industrial relations. That is the only election issue where Labor have a popular position.
It isn't good enough, union membership has been in decline for decades.
Gough Whitlam saw this coming. By the 1970's unionised workers were enjoying unprecedented standards of living. Whitlam knew that worker satisfaction and general prosperity directly threatened the health of unions and with them, the ALP.
Gough, brilliantly saved Labor's bacon with his free tertiary education programme. Because degrees didn't cost anything anymore, no return on investment was required. More people studied unprofitable things like Arts, Education and Social Sciences.
These areas of study had a strong left wing bias and people with degrees in things that aren't profitable soon found a home in Labor's bosom.
Throughout the 1980's Labor did an admirable job of balancing the interests of smart, broke people against those of the blue collars. The two put together were enough to give Labor government in 1983. The Soviet Union hadn't had its arse handed to it yet, so smug academics could still get into bed with the enemy. The anti-success, tall poppy butchering principles of socialism were reasonably in tune with what Aussie common folk were thinking. It was a good time to be a Lefty
In 1989 the Berlin wall came down. There was not, surprisingly, a stampede to get into East Germany. The Socialist experiment was crumbling, and by 1991 it had been stabbed in its heart.
The academic Left had to find a new cause. Fast.
The Earth Summit in Rio occured in 1992, just a year after the Soviet Union got it's arse whupped. That's fast.
Environmental protection, together with multiculturalism became the new political fashion and the unprofitable graduates began their divergence from the working class. It wasn't too bad for a while. The blue collars didn't actively hate the environment, they just weren't interested in saving it.
The fissure became a canyon when unskilled labourers lost their jobs in economic restructing and promptly blamed it on Asians. Paul Keating took sides with the multi-cultis and Labor lost the 1996 election.
And so in 2006 we have the common people not particularly interested in a Civic Hybrid and pounding Lebos in Sydney.
It's crucial for Labor to purge the intelligenstia. These folk represent a tiny segment of the population and have a ready made party with few compromises. Its called The Greens.
Labor can't win on the environment, they need to leave that to the Greens. Heaping shit on the US like Latham did probably won't help as Australian people generally have a positive attitude towards our American cousins.
Labor can rebuild itself but it needs a more complete understanding of its electorate; who they are and what they want.
They probably need to keep the ethnic minorities in the fold to swing a few marginal seats.
They should maintain their position on industrial relations and prey that the common people like their 4 weeks annual leave more than they dislike darkies.
posted by Mr Schrempp @ 8:47 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home