The Liberal Party of Australia, for at least a decade and a half now, has been more than happy to have its own little free trade agreement with the US Republicans, borrowing campaign and political strategies as needed, regardless in some instances of how well they adapt to Australian circumstances. So we’ve had Culture Wars, the War on Terror, and more recently, Tony Abbott’s impersonation of the GOP “Party of No” approach to opposition.
The increasing globalisation of political campaigns and strategy is a development of the last couple of decades. The Republicans and Likud in Israel gave each other pointers, US political consultants work in Israel, UK “New Labour” sought to learn from both Clinton’s Democrats and Hawke and Keating’s Australian Labor reformism. The Liberals have even been exporters – Lynton Crosby (originally one half of Crosby Textor) famously ran an anti-immigration tinged campaign for the British Tories’ 2005 campaign led by Michael Howard (no relation), and Liberal operatives had their fingerprints all over Boris Johnson’s successful effort to topple Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London in 2008.
It’s interesting, then to consider George Brandis’ comments on Q&A that nothing said in the US congressional elections went “beyond the bounds of legitimate but very heated criticism of the president, the current administration and their policies.”
I’m not sure how closely Brandis followed the campaign, and the rise of the Tea Party, but Richard Farmer has helpfully put together a compendium of these “legitimate” comments for his information. Go read!
Gee, some of that stuff included by Farmer is macabre. It makes the foetus incident involving Bush and his mother presented by Liam at the “decisions points” thread, seem positively tame by comparison.
Digressing, will confess am off to collect a repeat series of “Mother and Son”, in the wake of the Liam revelation.
But no QA this week.
Not when it’s something taken over for the purposes of the shameless cross-promotion of misanthropes like Brandis and the hideous Albrechtsen.
But it was worth watching alone for the expression on Planet Janet’s face as a questioner referred to her views as ‘Barbie economics’.
One wonders whether this kind of madness could take here. I suppose it could. Time alone will tell.
Have to call it s omething else, though. Rum Rebellion Party? Vinegar Hill Party?
The Tea Party arose as an insurgency.
This type of movement is enabled by the very open nature of US party politics. Specifically, the nomination and primary process encourages insurgency.
This route to influence does not exist in any Australian political party. The only alternative in Australia political parties is entrism, a topic already discussed elsewhere.
Alternatively, entrenched party political managers may copy the rhetoric of an insurgency like the Tea Party and attempt to drive rhetorical change from the top down. Only infrequently does this change of rhetoric signify a change in the priorities of an Australian political party. Instead, this change in rhetoric merely signifies a new way to achieve well-established priorities.
Paul: I’d have my money on the “Eureka Party”
FMark @ 6,
Ah yes, perfect. It was a tax revolt, of sorts, influenced by Americans. But WTF would be its ideology. After all, apart from Ballarat Council, all sorts of people lay claim to the Eureka Flag nowadays.
I think all sensible lefties should rally around and form a Coffee Party. Comrades come rally! You have nothing to lose but your lattes, etc. etc.
Australia is as likely to have a tax revolt as John Howard is to convert to Islam.
Populism in Australia is always about attempting to make the government more powerful in support of the prejudices of interest groups.
Consider:
The C19 Trade Union movement.
The Old Guard
The White Guard
The New Guard
One Nation
None of these groups opposed paying tax so long as the revenues were put to the “right” use.
Neither were these groups averse to ceding new powers to government, for the “right” cause.
The Eureka movement is unusual in Australia in that it attempted to weaken the powers of government.
In general, Australians have embraced powerful government as a desirable means to an end.
Just to let you know: there is an Australian Tea Party website / Wordpress blog. Fighting against Logan City Council animal laws.
Paul Burns @7: I believe it’s quite popular with racists these days for some reason, although that may be a misconception on my part caused by the hefty Venn overlap between sulky nationalists and bigots. The specifics of the Eureka rebellion don’t need to factor into the politics of a Tea Party-style ‘Eureka Party’; historical awareness isn’t exactly the strong suit of Tea Partiers, whatever country they come from. Find a group from your country in the past who had a strop over something distantly thematically similar to your complaint, and grab their name — simple! For another American example, see the thugs of the modern ‘Minuteman Project’. Not exactly a new wave of Paul Reveres.
BTW: Richard Farmer left out one of the most interesting bits of information on the Tea Party movement. One of their candidates, Rich Iott, was and is a war re-enactor. Pretty common in the States, you might think. But dressing up as Waffen SS? That’s just rank.
@10 Oh, that’s brilliant! Quake in your boots, Logan City Council; your bogans have mastered Adobe Flash, and they’re not afraid to use it!
It was helpful of them to tell me what their loading screen was ‘inspired by’; I also didn’t know that pigs were frightened by any of those animals (“A sheep! Take cover!”). I feel I’ve learned something today.
PB @ 4, we’ve already got a Rum Rebellion Party.
It’s whoever happens to be running NSW at any given point in time …
Eureka? Rum Rebellion? Oh, c’mon, get with the program
Voila!
The Billie Party!
Fair dinkum, ridgie-didgie, true-blue ocker, AND it contains tea!
That’s gold, Down and Out! You just couldn’t make this stuff up.
The question in the article’s headline kind of answers itself, though.
Kim – the Tea Party was created because the Republican Party was seen as not reflecting the opinions of those who joined the Tea Party. Therefore, to argue that the Liberals or Coalition might create it’ own Tea Party movement does not logically follow on.
As has been pointed out before, One Nation, was probably our Tea Party moment and that drew from both the ALP and the Coalition.
The Tea Party in the US is focussed on lowering taxes,spending and deficits and arose out of what many of them see as socialism by stealth – the health care legislation. At the same time the US economy is up shit creek without a paddle and Obiwan is seen to have done SFA except focus on issues close to his own heart rather than focus on what middle America needs now. In Australia, we don’t have the same sort of lightening rod causes to draw a similar group together. Nor is there a long history of libertarian small-government philosophy or politics (unfortunately) to springboard off. I am sure that the head honchos of the Coalition are very happy that none of those factors exist here and the train wreck that One Nation turned out to be as an example of what not to do.
As for the bank of comments you linked to – most of them were stupid and made by weak, losing candidates. In a country of 330 million you’d expect a few wackos and SNAFUs and FUBARs to happen on all sides of politics. So, the vast majority of the time Brandis’s comment is fair and reasonable – and I thought this site avoided Gotcha journalism???
@17 –
Can’t see where in the post I made that argument, Razor.
Fret not, sweet ‘Razor’; we’ll always have Somalia.
Looking at the local Tea Party website and the proposal to change animal keeping laws in Logan City; it looks like they’ve tried to co-opt what is probably a very reasonable local protest and remould it into an example of Tea Power. Not very convincing. Although I do love the link to ‘Animal Farm’.
The tea party is full of idiots.
They want to reduce the deficit but their policies increase it.
They will not touch the main reason for the structural deficit ie the Bush tax cuts and the changes to medicare.
They want to maintain middle class welfare and slash other spending.
They are supercilious and extremely ignorant of almost any issue they rant about.
Think of Catallaxy and you have it.
They could ensure the US copies Japan
Well. I suppose if there’s nowhere for well-off, aging white middle-class right wingers to go … but you do have to like dressing up in tricorn hats, waistcoats, wigs etc. and carrying powderhorns and !8C muskets that might just blow up in your face if you don’t know how to use them.
The irony of the above comment being posted on Larvatus Prodeo.net is perhaps lost on many who will read it.
“Animal Farm”, eh?
This animal business is sure doing the rounds, in the wake of tabloid headlines about the recreational preferences of certain local elite sportspeople.
Must google up this Rich Lott character, wasn’t there a Republican bigshot in Washington also surnamed Lott, that got drummed out a few years ago with fingers caught in the till?
Zing! A masterful riposte.
Yes, SATP’s wit has always been an Antipodean version of the best of Coward and Wilde combined.
Razor: personally, I don’t think the Tea Partiers get enough derision. They confuse any collective agreement with tyranny.
Meanwhile, if you are boarding a plane in the US, you’ve got a choice of being scanned by X-rays, or alternatively being groped by a TSA official – genital region included. That’s not just passengers – that’s pilots as well.
I personally haven’t heard of any Tea Party wankers decrying this petty fascism. Not that there aren’t any – it’s just that I haven’t heard of any of them griping about the behavior of their invasive, bullying and utterly incompetent Transportation Security Administration. I would think that if you’re a group really about “Freedom”, then that would include the freedom of your sons and daughters from molestation by an official AND extra Sieverts.
As Bugs Bunny would say of each and every Tea-Partier: what a maroon.
Like affordable health care, you mean? Quite right. Being looked after when you’re sick without being made even sicker by the threat of bankruptcy is just a frill. Middle America should harden the frack up.
That’ll be ‘Antipodean’ in the sense of ‘the opposite of’?
@24: Trent Lott. No relation to Rich, I believe.
@27: To think that all those perfectly personable monks set themselves on fire in protest back in the day and yet these Tea Party types just sit on their arses and whinge. I want to see some ‘liberty or death!’ action from these guys. The socialist conspiracy infiltrates your local sanitation services? Immolate yourself! Death before dishonour!
:Rum Rebellion Party? Vinegar Hill Party:
Rum rebellion maybe. Vinegar Hill never.
Tones does good irony, SATP.
http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2010/02/09/1225828/072428-tony-abbott-ironing.jpg
Razor, the Tea Party foot-soldiers may well resemble the members of One Nation (a bit – One Nation weren’t frothing-at-the-mouth libertarians), but it’s anything but a grassroots organisation.
You must have been asleep when the revelations about who funds it came out.
“That’ll be ‘Antipodean’ in the sense of ‘the opposite of’?”
Tish boom, Dr. Cat.
Well I’ll be stuffed. Rupert! Who woulda thought. Thanks for that DI (nr)
Kim @ 18 – I thought you lefties were all into nuance – your first two paragraphs are all about how the Conservatives of the great western democracies swap spit – the logical extension/nuance, although not explicitly mentioned, is that the Coalition will try a Tea Party thing on.
I amaze how the strong and wealthy can convince the poor and vulnerable that it is their interest to fight the battles of the powerful.
A very wealthy individual as far as I know funds the TEA Party. It is not the grassroots party it is portray to be. In this country, it was not hard for the wealthy mining companies to get the mass to rise up and do the fighting for them. In both cases, the people who were in the forefront had nothing to gain and much to lose from the action taken.
The people in the TEA Party were fighting against medical and other reforms that would benefit those most. Here, they fought against being compensated for the minerals they as a people own, which the mining companies are taking out of the ground. All that was to occur was that some of the super profits were being returned to the people.
Will we ever wake up?
James, had a look and found that, qapart from Trent Lott, there is only a John Richard Lott mentioned; a right wing think tanker. The usually forthcoming Wiki is remarkably reticent when it comes to “Rich Lott”, altho there is a fair feed about the SS uniforms- apparently they see themselves as a modern reconstruction of the Waffen SS “Wiking” division of ww2 notoriety, (shit, am I GHodwinned for this?) for the purposes of weegend militia outings, but Lott reckons he “knows nothing” about these nazi dudes; a real Sgt Shultz defence, you wonder.
Nothing mentioned, of course as to “Lott’s Wife”, tee hee.
Oh, I see now; Rich’s surname is, as Down & Out aptly typed, ‘Iott’.
(“I wonder if this Homer Nixon is any relation…”
“I don’t think so sir, they both spell and pronounce their names differently.”)
pw @ 38,
What? He was too young to watch Holocaust or he’s a WW2 military re-enactor who doesn’t watch WW2 movies? First time I’ve ever heard of one of those, and I blog with American re-enactors (mainly Amer. rev.) from time to time. They can tell you every movie ever made about the American Revolution, feature and documentary, TV and cinema. Would have though WW2 re-enactors would be similar.
BP was the one that surprised me, Paul, although it makes perfect sense when you think about it.
One of the reasons why relatively few “grassroots” parties like the TEA Party don’t get off the ground in Australia is that Australia has produced relatively few lunatic corporate giants. Our corporations tend to be managed in the interests of shareholders by (well-paid) executives who are merely small minority shareholders of the corporations they run.
Australia did have at least one lunatic corporate giant, but he ran off and became a US citizen. Now he is bankrolling the US TEA Party.
Other Australian corporate behemoths do or did exist. Kerry Packer became Australia’s richest man not by standing against government but by buying dirt-cheap government-guaranteed monopolies like TV stations or casinos. It is notorious that these government-created monopolies were a licence to print money.
But why would Kerry Packer ever support a TEA Party dedicated to shrinking governments? Packer was the product of big government, not its enemy.
Cause it does, DI (nr). Obi-wan has this crazy idea that preserving the planet is more important than making a profit, doesn’t he?
Indeed, Katz. One of the best apocryphal stories I’ve ever heard about the older Packer was that in a meeting about media cross-ownership with the then Prime Minister Keating he pointed his finger at PJK and said “Son, do you know what the problem is? One of us in this room believes in fair trade, and the other one believes in capitalism”.
Shit Paul! The tea-baggers are right! O’Bama is a COMMUNIST!!!!11!!eleven!
oh by the way eliminating the Obama health care legislation would also INCREASE the deficit as the CBO has shown.
That’s right, PB, never even watched “Hogan’s Heroes”.
Now there’s a deprived childhood, for you!
Mind you, the Lott antic is said to be unwelcome in certain rightwing circles, since it has dragged the Zionist Lobby out kicking and screaming, altho just for once, it might actually have some thing to cavill with, as to this particular prank.
Well, yaaas, but really, and with respect, so what? Global politics and all, don’tcha know. Us lefties started it all with “workers of the world unite”, now the Repubs and Liberals are going with “plutocrats of the world unite”.
I moved to the US shortly after the Kevin07 election, and what surprised me with Obama’s campaign was how much they “borrowed”:
- The ‘working families’ mantra in campaign speeches.
- The frenetic online campaigning thru social networks.
- The campaign persona of a cool-headed, self-styled “centrist” preaching unity and fiscal prudence against an incumbent who was happy to preach division and splash around the cash. Obama practically stole Kevin07′s best line from his campaign launch…”this reckless spending must stop”.
- The campaign capitalising on a palpable mood for change in the electorate.
etc…
I actually feel like I lived through the Kevin07 campaign on two occasions on two different sides of the Pacific, a year apart.
Say what you will about the World War 2 reenactors, at least they only do it in their free time, unlike the bloody Cold War reenactors.
Senator Brandis, who seems so relaxed and comfortable about the Tea Party in 2010, saw chilling “commonalities between contemporary green politics and old-fashioned fascism and Nazism” in 2003 (www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/29/1067233222840.html).
Bracket creep, Flan, me boy!
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/29/1067233222840.html
If the comments above (save for a few) are any indication, the ignorance about the dangers the Tea Party Movement represents in Australia will aid it’s spread. I keep banging on about the subterranean workings of the Tea Party (and yes, it is operating in Australia and yes, it is supported by many on the Conservative side of politics). Thank goodness for those, like Richard Farmer, who call attention to some of their thinking in the U.S.
Good on those who try to publicise the skewed thinking and the likeness of the Tea Party to some of the more authoritarian movements in history.
I dunno, mediatracker.
I put some of the US Tea Party bandwagoning down to precisely the degree to which certain commentators warned ‘ordinary people’ about them, calling them dangerous loonies and the like.
Pissing off the liberal media is, after all, a huge part of the point of being a modern rightwinger in the TP mould.
@55 spot on – the main thing I like about Palin is the explodingheads she creates.
Small things, Razor …
She doesn’t actually make heads explode so much as shake in bewilderment.
And of course Razor, being passing smart, you know that the reason for most of the splosions (mine at least) is that it’s impossible to imagine anyone taking such a fucking idiot seriously.
Saying so apparently makes me elitist scum… not saying so makes me a traitor to myself and to the truth. Basically I’m wedged, by a combination of anti-intellectuals (her real supporters) and people like you Razor, who should know better but find it all such a larf they can’t be bothered standing up for themselves and their brand of politics.
And sure, that must be fun for a while, for anyone so easily entertained. But it absolutely CANNOT be a Good Thing overall, can it Razor?
FDB – I don’t think Palin is a rocket surgeon, but that doesn’t mean she should not be allowed to have a swing. I think there are many potential candidates who would probably make better Office Bearers than her. From what I’ve seen I like Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. However, I also have faith in the checks and balances of the US system to reign in any stupidity even if Palin gets up. Worked so far with Barry.
Razor – my point is that a whole lot of people – like you – who are broadly speaking from her side of politics, take the proposition that she should be “allowed to have a swing” and morph it into an unwillingness to call her on her crazy bullshit.
She should be allowed to have a swing, and the rest of us should be allowed to (and some of those obliged to) call her swing a miss and move on.
I’m in the should be allowed camp – you’re in the should be obliged, I’m afraid.
But go on shirking your responsibility if you want, and feel free to ignore me – after all this is possibly the most bald-faced concern-trolling I’ve ever read, never mind written.
Ummm, isn’t Brandis the very kind of politician who would most likely be subjected to a nasty whispering campaign from these people, if you know what I mean?
Otherwise I hope he’s sprouting this whitewashing BS merely as a way of giving some encouragement to those Lib Party HQs that hire Americans. All seven state & federal divisions of them.
FDB, I don’t think I’m being unfair to Razor if I say that his liking for Palin is drenched, absolutely drenched, in the politics of persecution complex. Hint, just because he’s now chuckling about ‘heads exploding’ it doesn’t change the fact what he’s most looking forward to having one of his little weepy episodes over the brutishness of teh meeja.
Few of them are looking for a vindication through her doing well. Or being normal.
*pssst*
Ixnay on the ersecutioncomplexpay, Mister WS – I’m trying to concern-troll here.
FDB, I reckon you’re selling yourself short. I doubt if your head is any closer to exploding over Palin’s more outrageous statements than mine.
But the fact is, she’s a fucken idiot. I just laugh and point at these people, which is all they deserve.
As for Brandis, Nickws, he’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work. If he really believes that green nazi shit, he’s a fool, but I reckon he’s an just opportunistic rogue.
@59 – an unwillingness to call her on her bullshit? I have no problem with calling anyone on their bullshit – however on the same theme the media and blogosphere generates a lot of bullshit – take the seeing Russia from Alaska stuff. Now, just because you actualy can see a Russian Island from an Alaskan Island doesn’t make any Alaskan an expert on international relations. Palin should have come up with a better example of her interest in foriegn affairs – maybe she thought that the media would extrapolate on the role of tha Governor of Alaska in border management issues or something, hell I don’t know, but it was a crap answer. However it has evovled now into “I can see Alaska from my backyard” Saturday Night Live schtick.
@63 – the Greens do express many potential solutions in rather totalitarian tones.
Razor @ 65, can I have some of the drugs you’re taking? They clearly give you an … interesting … perspective.
A good expose on the lunacy and sheer hypocrisy of the Tea Party movement:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904?RS_show_page=0
Janice and David are the reasons why Murdoch is a squillionaire.
And, Jacques, a good expose of the lunacy of much of this thread is an “argument”, if it can be dignified with that word, that one anecdote about a probably fictional couple’s views is a good expose of the lunacy of the Tea Party.
Even leaving aside the idiocy of generalising a single unverified anecdote from somewhat less than objective source into sweeping support for one’s own pre-existing views, the premises of the anecdote in its own right are ludicrous. Apparently, if you work for the Government you must vote Democrat and abjure Medicare. For God’s sake they’re taxing you for it anyway, you’d be daft not to make use of it.
As for the Palin-hate, it’s premature whatever you think of her. For a good number of Americans, the issue is focusing on one problem at a time and in the right order. Obama is the problem. Palin hasn’t even been nominated yet, and the balance of probabilities is that she never will be.
I can’t argue with that logic.
quite related from LaDonna Pavetti.
Yesterday, the Republican Study Committee issued a press release announcing one of its first ideas for tackling spending: eliminating the TANF Emergency Fund, which the RSC says would save $25 billion over the next decade “by restoring welfare reform.” There are so many problems with this proposal that it’s hard to know where to begin. Here are the facts:
?The TANF Emergency Fund no longer exists. It expired on September 30. You can’t achieve savings by ending a program that has already ended.
?Nobody has ever proposed spending $25 billion on the fund. Earlier this year the House passed a bill to extend it for one year, at a cost of $2.5 billion — one-tenth of the savings that the RSC claims.
?The TANF Emergency Fund is welfare reform. In fact, the fund represents welfare reform at its best: it has enabled states to expand work-focused programs within TANF despite high unemployment and a weak economy. Using the fund, states placed about 250,000 low-income parents and youth in subsidized jobs, mostly in the private sector.
Amazing. Do the Republicans have the same researchers as Hockey and Robb?
Palin has symbolic importance as the quasi-charismatic figurehead of the Tea Party. We have compared her with Pauline Hanson, who occupied a similar role in the One Nation movement here in the 90s. But there are significant differences in addition to the obvious ones that One Nation was protectionist and not opposed to government intervention.
Specifically with the two figureheads: both took advantage of cliches and prejudices, but they differed as individuals. Hanson was ignorant and naive (if we were being unkind, dumb) but within those boundaries relatively honest and sincere. Palin has those first-mentioned traits, but has been shown often to be dishonest under questioning. No amount of charm can disguise that.
@69: “probably fictional”? Whether or not their names are real or their quoted remarks accurately rendered, it is a fact that a substantial number of those identifying as “tea partiers” age- or otherwise-eligible citizens receiving Social Security and Medicare oppose any increase in spending or eligibility for others. I’ve heard them in person and on such programs as Rush Limbaugh’s (although his position seems to have “evolved” in recent years)
The Tea Party is not a Party per se, despite there having been a “national convention”. The candidates identified as Tea Party candidates were Republicans, more extreme than the GOP candidates, who won in a primary ballot.
The whole thing was ginned up into something more prominent than it ever deserved by the conniving Fox News and the compliance of other media outlets afraid to miss out on something that would sell papers. The racism and selfishness exhibited might have been no more than the annual tax-day protests the movement started as, but for John McCain’s running mate, Murdoch, and GOP cowardice in the face of inevitable change.
I don’t worry about Palin. She’s more interested in being a candidate-in-waiting than actually being Prez. Lots of lucrative speaking engagements, all the better for her expense account at Macy’s.
Because when you’re a figurehead of the Tea Party movement, every day is like big rock candy mountain. For the next two years at least.
OK. I’ve been stewing on this for the past couple of days but after seeing a TED speech on the treatment of the Sioux in the US all I have to say is that it is amazing and reprehensible that in a country where there are so many poor people that have been screwed and is still being screwed and we have this political movement which is essentially a bunch of white middle class people whining about being oppressed because the President is black and they have to pay tax.
Obviously I’m seeing this in simplistic terms so help me out. Why are these people who should be thanking their lucky stars that they are among the most privileged people in the world are moaning the most loudly.
ffs. These guys have no problem telling those struggling to make ends meet to suck it up but woe to anyone who gets in the way of their cake.
I like all that right to bare arms Georgian stuff Americans go on with — if any of them had been paying attention, since at least the end of the 1960s it’d be IEDs and not Smith and Wessons in the gun racks of these courageous frontiers-folk. Oh well, don’t let reality get in the way of a good story.