Abbott and his Politics of Hate
John Howard had his haters, mainly because of his decision to back
George W Bush in an illegal war. Spurred on by a hateful media Julia
Gillard was loathed by many because of a perceived lie. When people hate
politicians, they do so with malevolent intent.
Often hate is attractive to unthinking, ill-informed minds. It is
born of trepidation. A fear of not understanding. This can be witnessed
in the audiences that people like Bolt, Jones, Hadley and others
attract. Or when the Murdoch presses display their detestation, in all
its putrid ugliness, on the front pages of their tabloids.
Hate reveals itself in politics, sport, self, jealousy, race,
religion, culture and relationship. Hate is simply an outward
manifestation of our inner struggles with our faults and flaws?
Hate also expresses itself in leadership. The way leaders conduct
themselves is reflected in the decisions they make. On a grand scale
leaders like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot displayed hate in all its
viciousness.
We all have the capacity for it. A sportsperson out of the blue
utters a racial slur, born of hate that is completely out of character.
They cannot explain why but usually their hatred is born of ignorance,
something they dread, or is foreign to them.
It seems to me that hatred is fear without courage aligned with an
inability to forgive. An incapacity to manage past hurts, losses and
taught or acquired prejudices.
Fear goes immediately to blame and from blame a desire for vindication or revenge that manifests itself in hatred.
Every day the Abbott Government portrays a sense of loathing. Since
gaining power Tony Abbott and his government has shown a hatred for all
things Labor that has surpassed the usual transitional norm. At the
launch of the Paul Kelly book ‘’Triumph and Demise’’ in which he
expressed the view that our democracy was in trouble Tony Abbott said
there was nothing wrong with it.
‘’It’s only the people who inhabit it from time to time’’
A clear example of his revulsion of all things Labor.
Another, is his comment on Labor’s environment policy.
It’s socialism masquerading as environmentalism.”
In Opposition Tony Abbott made it abundantly clear that he was there
to oppose everything and that’s exactly what he did. He opposed
everything with combative belligerence, often using sexism as a means of
degrading his opponent. He created a shock and awe mentality of a
government out of control. His loathing of a female Prime Minister
transferred into misogyny. The media said he was the most successful
Opposition Leader the country had ever had. A strange measure of success
based on hate.
His Prime Ministership began with a determination to impose his born
to rule Neo conservative ideology on the electorate and two Royal
Commissions. An unprecedented decision to release cabinet documents as
evidence in the commissions showed just how far he was prepared to allow
his hatred to go.
The first was into the management of the Pink Bats Scheme. It reached
conclusions no different from the previous 8 inquiries. The Government
has said it will respond to its recommendations before Christmas. Will
it risk more criticism of its already negative public image with more
vindictiveness? Secondly it instigated another Royal Commission into
Unions. John Howard saw through Abbott’s spite, saying they were a bad
idea.
Then an orchestrated campaign of hatred in tandem with Murdoch was launched against the ABC.
Their hatred for asylum seekers is well-known. They have been
demonising them for many years. There are now over 600 children locked
up in detention centers. 459 are on the Australian mainland and 144 on
Christmas Island. There are 186 children detained on Nauru without any
chance of being resettled in Australia. What is their crime?
They hate people who worry about ‘’Climate Change’’ and want to do
something about it labeling them as alarmists, dismissing science as
superfluous to the debate.
Yes they hate science if it transgresses the corporation’s
capitalistic agenda. The right to profit from pollution no matter the
harm it does.
They hate that everyday Australians consider it unfair for the poor
to have to pay $7 for going to a GP while millionaire mothers receive
cheques for $50,000 for having a baby.
And they hate trade unions and resent the working people who choose
to join them. They hate that young people are objecting to deregulated
university fees.
Pensioners are not spared their vengeance either with a deliberate
attempt to lower their living standards. If ever one wanted evidence of
this government’s hatred of the poor and middle classes one only has to
look at the current budget.
Ross Gittens put it this way.
‘’The first and biggest reason the government is having
to modify or abandon so many of its measures is the budget’s blatant
unfairness. In 40 years of budget-watching I’ve seen plenty of unfair
budgets, but never one as bad as this’’
To hate with conviction requires a capacity to lie with unabashed
certitude. To legitimise it to the point that people think they are no
longer communicating in English.
At his press conference December 1, Abbott was still insisting that
‘’all’’ families were $550 better off on their power bills since the
removal of the carbon tax. An unmitigated blatant, deliberate lie.
Nobody lies with greater sincerity than the Prime Minister. As a
professed Christian he should know that nothing good was ever built on a
foundation of hate.
The Prime Minister and his government has shown an insensitivity to
the common good that goes beyond any thoughtful examination. They have
hate on their lips and their hate starts with the beginning of a smile.
Those on the left of politics, the progressive social democratic
engineers of society, are concerned with people who cannot help
themselves. The right, the conservative privileged elitists, are
concerned with those who can.
PS I hated writing that.
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