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The attitude of the conservatives towards democracy is usually hidden under a mountain of platitudes. Probably their favourite is to quote Churchill (of course) - 'It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.' And they nod, wisely, having once again put down those wicked socialists who have dared to criticise some aspect of the way they govern - their manipulation of the media, their secrecy, their cronyism, their reduction of voting rights, their use of dishonest advertising, their stacking of boards, their corruption of parliamentary procedures, their crushing of dissent. This is Democracy as conservatives understand it (to quote Humpty Dumpty 'When I use a word it means just what I want it to mean, neither more nor less').
The Churchill response might come, for example, when there are complaints from civil libertarians (oh for the day when it is unnecessary to describe a small subset of the population as civil libertarians, and when the term is a synonym for citizen) about the loss of liberties under the 'anti-terror laws'. You remember the anti-terror laws, brought in very hastily (a knee-jerk reaction is good when it panders to your electoral base - stem cells, gay marriage, euthanasia, terrorism, refugees - not when it is needed to save the world we live in) to prevent the planet being taken over by Al-Quaida, which was apparently about to happen. The logic, as best I could tell, was that Islamic fundamentalists were about to take away all our freedoms, and Mr Howard had a cunning plan - he would take away all our freedoms first, and then A-Q couldn't do it, and they would wander off grumbling to themselves ('We were that close, damn that fiendishly clever Mr Howard and Mr Ruddock').
I was reminded of all this again when Howard said that Rudd and Gilliard were 'too inexperienced' to run the country; and then shortly after when he not only hoped that Barack Obama would never become president, but that the Democratic Party wouldn't win the next election. Before all that he had been outraged to see the Palestinians, in a democratic election, vote for Hamas. The Palestinians were to be punished for not voting the way Mr Howard and Mr Bush wanted them to vote.
Let me try my understanding of democracy on you - hopelessly naive, I guess, but see if you agree. A democracy involves a number of candidates, for whatever job is available, speaking to the public about (a) policies and (b) abilities, and then letting the public vote to see which candidate they think could do the job best. The election process should happen at regular intervals, and the public's view of the best policies will change from time to time depending on the prevailing circumstances. In between citizens are kept well informed, consulted, listened to.
The conservatives apparently believe nothing of the kind. Their view is that only conservative policies and philosophies are legitimate. The democratic process, in the mind of John Howard is purely the event which occurs, once every three years or so, in which the public gives the Liberal Party a majority. I suspect that he would rather save the expense to the Liberal Party of running elections, but it is in the constitution so we had better keep it going. But in any case the Liberal Party will do whatever is necessary to ensure that it is back into government once the last of the how-to-vote cards is swept up from the polling place.
Now he is probably no fool, Mr Howard (although I do, from time to time, wonder ....). He knows that the public doesn't like conservative policies, that they get angry about workplace tyranny, and public school funding, and climate change, and Iraq, and David Hicks, and refugees, and health care. He knows that there are many people who like that nice Mr Rudd, and many others who like that nice Mr Brown. But no matter what the public attitudes, the role of an election campaign is to ensure that neither Labor nor the Greens will ever be in government. The role of an election is simply to confirm, over and over again, that the only natural government is a conservative one and that the Liberal Party (and indeed Mr Howard himself) should rule Australia for ever. Democracy is a one party state, a conservative party (Cuba of course isn't democratic because while it has a one party state, it is a left wing party!).
So, do I think Churchill was right? Well yes, I probably do, but I am sure that John Howard doesn't. And the problem with the Churchill quote is that while he refers to the other forms of government that 'have been tried from time to time', he clearly believes that democracy has been tried too. Not in Australia it hasn't, not recently anyway.
Will it be tried in the future? Well, we shall all have to wait and see. I'm about as optimistic as I am about climate change - and we are going to need democracy to deal with that.
{ Post a Comment }
john howard
{ 5:03 PM, 11 February 2008 }
{ Posted by Anonymous }
how very true...
and I thought they were no lateral thinkers left in Australia
[David says - why, thank you kind sir/madam. Sometimes people think I am too lateral!]
Edited by mrpickwick on 11 February 2008 at 1:06 AM
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