Malcolm Turnbull lost his grip as Prime Minister in just 48 hours

Click here to read How Malcolm Turnbull lost his grip as Prime Minister in just 48 hours.

I think part of the problem of everyday existence and politics today is their underlying “ideologies" whether conservative, liberal, or socialist, is they lack coherency. These dogmas ate argued on the basis ‘we are right, you are wrong' tag, about things that are indefinable.  In general I don’t think free-thinking individuals always fit into any system of thought. That could be the equivalent of putting on a straight-jacket.

 

Given today’s revelations we gain new insight into how the so called liberalism was at odds to conservative values and how quickly liberalism fractures on so many issues.

A more sensible approach might be tied to a social justice theme to argue policies identified with this thematic rather than being beholden to any particular ideology. In a sense an ongoing work in progress.

Another example is what sort of policy you have on power or energy must always revert back to some basic party style philosophy.

That determines who owns what and the underlying principles to regulation. Only once you have sorted that out you can then make sensible decisions on emission targets and draft an industry policy. What happened is we adopted a target bereft of an industry policy.           

 

Having such conflicting ideas in the liberal party it is a recipe for disaster. It can only work if you have a nimble leader who convinces both sides they are wrong and leads the troops to a third way, which is to be receptive to the mood of their electorate, not to be swayed by external powerful influencers. Such a tortuous position survived in the past but I’m not sure it can continue on indefinitely.

Hence I think the days of the liberal party surviving as a broad church (John Howard’s idea) to become more sympathetic to a conservative agenda is unlikely to survive unless they ditch the very idea of liberalism. Or they redefine what it means to be a liberal human being. Can anyone tell me what you think it means. Individualism seems to me to be a nonsensical idea that contradicts our history to identify with a culture that shapes and helps explain that shared existence.  

Whilst I don’t agree with conservatism as such at least they can define just a little better what they believe in as opposed to the liberals who can’t. Although we might not like it much.