Hyperbole and one-upmanship

[Postul8]

from Howard's Menzie's Research Centre lecture last night:

"Ours is a party which rejects extremes. We should not, however, be a party that constantly seeks the mid point between opposing arguments. Liberals should always retain their strong belief in the fundamental force of the market. "

Ming must be spinning in his grave. Howard claims to reject extremes, yet Workchoices became his petard. He overtly rejected the middle ground, overtly rejected social democracy, and still today after being only the second PM to lose both his seat and government, he supports the rampant right wing neo-liberalism, conservatism, neo-conservatism call it what you will, but socially responsible platform it most certainly is not.

Here's a challenge to those on the outer. Howard spoke of "contradictions flowing from senior Government figures as they deal with current economic challenges" in relation to Rudd government handling of the current economic crisis. What contradictions?

[skippy]

History will still judge him as being one of the best PM's that Australia has ever had despite the protestations of the 'comfortably well off guilt ridden swinging voters'

From a populartistic view, he might have over stayed his welcome but from a performance view, he was probably put out to pasture 5 years too early considering the current global state of affairs.

I am sure even you can agree that Kevin's 8000 word essay is nothing but trying to bolster his own position in a uneasy market.From proclaiming himself as an economic conservative to claiming social democrat status is quite a big swing, wouldn't you agree?

Just what does he stand for? Perhaps Nazism if it moves with the times and gains him the popular vote? Who knows?

History will judge him as it already is, as a man who couldn't let go from power, as a loser only the second PM in history to lose his seat, as a war criminal who invaded countries because the USA told him to, as the most devisive PM in Australia's history, as the worse treasurer this country has ever seen, as a racist prick who could never say sorry to the people this land was taken from, as a climate change denier for which we are now paying dearly see VIC fires, as a PM who in near on twelve years NEVER built any infrastructure, as the PM who had the biggest minning boom in this counties history yet left nothing to show for it,
as the son of a nazi ,as a lying little rodent, the list is endless I'll get back to you with more later .

[Jubial Priest]

History will judge him as it already is, as a man who couldn't let go from power, as a loser only the second PM in history to lose his seat, as a war criminal who invaded countries because the USA told him to, as the most devisive PM in Australia's history, as the worse treasurer this country has ever seen, as a racist prick who could never say sorry to the people this land was taken from, as a climate change denier for which we are now paying dearly see VIC fires, as a PM who in near on twelve years NEVER built any infrastructure, as the PM who had the biggest minning boom in this counties history yet left nothing to show for it,
as the son of a nazi ,as a lying little rodent, the list is endless I'll get back to you with more later .

Oh dear. You are a tragic aren't you.

Surely you should be able to think up some more things that are the fault of John Howard? I like how he is responsible for the bush fires now and the bush fires are caused by GW

Your voting for the Greens makes you far more responsible than John Howard will ever be- you should be ashamed of yourself

[skippy]

History will judge him as it already is, as a man who couldn't let go from power, as a loser only the second PM in history to lose his seat, as a war criminal who invaded countries because the USA told him to, as the most devisive PM in Australia's history, as the worse treasurer this country has ever seen, as a racist prick who could never say sorry to the people this land was taken from, as a climate change denier for which we are now paying dearly see VIC fires, as a PM who in near on twelve years NEVER built any infrastructure, as the PM who had the biggest minning boom in this counties history yet left nothing to show for it,
as the son of a nazi ,as a lying little rodent, the list is endless I'll get back to you with more later .

Oh dear. You are a tragic aren't you.

Surely you should be able to think up some more things that are the fault of John Howard? I like how he is responsible for the bush fires now and the bush fires are caused by GW

Your voting for the Greens makes you far more responsible than John Howard will ever be- you should be ashamed of yourself

Thanks spermy but your opinion is about as welcome as a hemroid.

[boxy]

Oh dear. You are a tragic aren't you.

Surely you should be able to think up some more things that are the fault of John Howard? I like how he is responsible for the bush fires now and the bush fires are caused by GW

Your voting for the Greens makes you far more responsible than John Howard will ever be- you should be ashamed of yourself

Not surprising that you go for the "weakest link", rather than dealing with the fact that Australia is in fact a socially democratic country, at it's very heart.

It's the reason that little Johny got sat on his arse... it's the reason that he had to limit himself to only chipping away at the safeguards put in place by generations of politicians before him.

[Postul8]

actually, Boxy, there's much, much more to Howard's dismissal than you make out, but you are correct in your assessment of Australia as a socially democratic nation. Sadly, under Howard egalitarianism was pushed far into the background and revisionist history brought to the fore. I certainly won't be claiming that Rudd is the cure-all but after 14 months, I'm comfortable thus far.

[Jubial Priest]

Skippy is an easy target

But funny you should mention that because I don't believe it has 'always' been a socially democratic place.

I believe it has moved that way when directed by an experienced government that was good at managing the economy and brought the fruits to their constituents. The costly and divisive 'social justice' themes have only really emerged towards the end of an era that was punctuated by too many people having too good for too long.

This happens and it is only human nature to give more when the going is good. Unfortunately society in this stage tends to lack the 'rainy day' people when they are most needed- which again is only human nature.

The squirrel who works hard during the winter shouldn't have to give up his nuts because of some guilt ideology (eg from business crying for 457 workers because their current workforce is in demand or an unmanageable ETS scheme that would put jobs at risk because it wasn't modelled on a global scale)

Keeping with the cookery theme that this site seemed to adopt at one stage, it was like trying to top a perfectly cooked soufflé with the whipped cream that the fat, greedy bastards wanted and then complaining when it collapsed

[boxy]

O, IC.

So the socially democratic, Howard government set the country on the right track, moving away from the free market paradise it used to be, eh?

Funny, but from the first post I replied to, it seemed that you were opposed to social democratic principles.

[Jubial Priest]

When did the Howard govt ever declare themselves as social democrats?

[boxy]

Never (too uptight about reds under the bed).

You seem to be suggesting that the country only implemented social democratic principles as a result of that governments "good management" though. Are you ignoring the fact that well before the libs came to power, there was an established welfare safety net, legislative protection for union membership, public schooling for all, universal basic health coverage, etc.

Howard attacked them all, at least as much as the electorate would allow, and in the end, his consistent disregard for social justice ended his career in infamy.