Drop the hysteria
with confected outrage from the usual mob of MPs (state and federal) and their views are encouraged and amplified by the Godfather of the Victorian Liberal Party, Jeff Kennett.
This most recent Andrews announcement saw Jeff come in off the long run and commit to a double-barrelled Twitter rant. The Beyond Blue founder, began: “I am furious.” Strong image.
He went on: “Premier Andrews has no appreciation of the damage he is doing to Victorian industry, Today’s comments are those of a meglamanic … Upper House MPs must prevent the this act of industrial terrorism! (sic)”
Jeff is an old advertising man. He knows the currency of political division. He came to power with the chirpy slogan: “The Guilty Party.” So the intentional implementation of the words “terrorism” and “megalomaniac” cannot be dismissed as another hysterical rant from an ageing Hawthorn supporter.
This is not a genuine attempt to have a discourse, it is emotive, antagonistic and completely unmoored from reality.
Premier Andrews is using exactly the same system of government that premier Kennett used last century. If the crossbench votes the legislation down, it will not be implemented. That’s not a dictatorship, that’s democracy.
This is the same system Jeff Kennett navigated to retrench 50,000 public servants, close 350 public schools and torch 7000 state government teaching positions. Was that megalomania?
Some may say it was the actions of a democratically elected conservative government committed to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of privatisation and cost-cutting to deal with billions of dollars of state debt. But Kennett’s government was responsible for the destruction of thousands of careers and he was kicked out when voters got sick of him.
Something is wrong with the way politicians are talking to each other. This discourse is mimicking the unhinged verbiage coming out of the US.
The Trump family has spent the whole week condemning Joe Biden and the Democrats, but their condemnation avoids discussion of their own policy, they go heavy on fear and loathing.
The speakers employ words such as “radical left”, “socialist” and “Marxist”.
The first night of the convention featured a middle-aged couple who held guns on Black Lives Matter protesters. The McCloskeys said: “No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats’ America …”
Donald Trump Jr and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle told the global television audience the Democrats “… want to destroy this country, they want to steal your liberty, your freedom, they want to enslave you.”
This is not politics. This is the end of community.
Australian should not fall in line with this American style of discourse. We do not live in a Deep State dystopian conspiracy.
Trump Republicans kidnap words in an attempt to scare people into voting for The Don.
They ignore the reality that North Korea is a communist state. North Dakota is not.
Vladimir Putin is a dictator. Joe Biden and Dan Andrews are not.
And if Kamala Harris is a Marxist, then Jeff Kennett was a megalomaniac.
If we’re going to make it through this pandemic with our sanity intact, we need to drop the hysteria. The misappropriation of language for political gain devalues our community and our lived experience.
Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and director