Hope from the Land of Tomorrow: Aussies Bring Back the Real Liberals

Growing up in Hawaii and California, I was vaguely tormented by the fact that it was almost always tomorrow in Australia. I sort of resented that the Aussies got to see the future before I did, and that by the time it became tomorrow where I lived, they already had used it up and were moving on to another tomorrow. I would lie in bed either listening on my transistor to Rolf Harris singing about his unfettered kangaroo, or watching on my tiny TV as Tasmanian Errol Flynn performed feats of derring-do--and, of course, Warner Brother cartoons had warned us about what comes from Tasmania! The Aussie threat to American culture was a very clear and present one! Needless to say, this type of awareness of the threat posed by foreign nations got me to go into the Foreign Service. Once in, to my horror, I discovered that the Aussies are pretty neat folks. I worked very closely with them in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and found that they have superb military and diplomatic services. It was a joy to work with them. I forgave them for passing on tomorrow to us a bit used. I even got into blogging thanks to Aussie Blogger Extraordinaire Tim Blair, whose erudition, wit, and biting sarcasm let me know that there was a new digital way to fight the leftist insanity.

A big John Howard fan, I admired his blunt speaking, profound patriotism, and willingness to continue the long Aussie tradition of stepping up to defend the West. His rise to power gave me hope that we could avoid four years of Al Gore after eight years of Clinton. Australia, again, proved the land of tomorrow, and we got George W. Bush. I was appalled when Howard's long run as PM ended and we saw Labor's Kevin Rudd incumber the office of PM. I saw Rudd more as a European phony than as one of the down-to-earth and very clear-eyed Australians with whom I worked. His kow-towing to the warmist crowd by signing Kyoto, and his "apology" for Australia being a great country turned me off completely. I hoped and prayed that Rudd, and his even more bizarre intra-Labor rival, weird Welshwoman Julia Gillard, would not prove a glimpse of what was in store for the USA. This time, Alas! Australia, again, predicted what was to come. We got an inept anti-American Chicago mountebank by the name of Barrack Hussein Obama, who made the shambolic (Note: A great British word!) Rudd-Gilliard-Rudd administration seem like a Swiss railroad in comparison.

Well, let's hope and pray mightily that newly elected PM Tony Abbott is as tough and conservative as he appears. I am delighted that, unlike in the USA, conservatives in Australia have preserved the word "Liberal" for themselves and not allowed it to be stolen and warped by the left. I also love the typical lefty assessment of him run by CNN. Read it and take in the fair and objective evaluation given Abbott by CNN in its opening paragraphs,

He may have run a gaffe-prone campaign against the bookish Kevin Rudd, the incumbent Labor prime minister, but his knockabout style, which harkens back to older, safer times, proved popular with an electorate exhausted by years of Labor infighting. 

Having successfully deflected accusations of sexism -- dismissing a campaign gaffe in which he lauded a Liberal female candidate for her "sex appeal" as a "dad moment" -- Abbott has presented himself as an unreconstructed male who loves his sport and beer. 

In Australia's current social climate, which some have attacked for being increasingly insular, self-absorbed and xenophobic, Abbott's bruising confrontational style has hit a rich seam.

Ah, the lefties! In just a few short sentences we "find out" that: the new PM is "gaffe-prone," while Rudd was "bookish"; he is a throwback to older days; he had accusations of sexism thrown at him (by whom, we wonder?); and he has capitalized on "Australia's current social climate, which some (again we wonder, who?) have attacked for being increasingly insular, self-absorbed and xenophobic." Most of the CNN piece, it turns out, while ostensibly about the new PM, is not even about Abbott but about vulgar incidents in Aussie politics. Nice pairing up; I am sure it's just coincidence.

As CNN, and others go on about the new PM, we find that Abbott is a neanderthal who doubts the global warming nonsense, likes women, sports, beer, and wants lower taxes, and to defend Australia's culture against the massive influx of "asylum seekers." He must be a very, very bad man.

As I hinted above, let's hope he's as bad as advertised. Let's also hope that Australia will, again, prove the political Land of Tomorrow. I live with that hope for change.

WLA