Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

Control and Profit at Any Cost

Well, well, what a coincidence. A few days after Downer's howler about Australia and America having "centre-right" governments, American media outlet Knight-Ridder is carrying a post-election analysis that finds

"this week's Republican sweep of the White House and Congress confirmed an essential truth about American politics: The United States is a moderate to conservative country."

Isn't just the wildest coincidence that two recently relected and very right wing governments would seek to reinvent themselves within days of each other as "moderate-to-conservative", especially in the face of mounting public alarm over their increasingly extreme behaviour. Just as telling for us is the statement that

"the party has refused to define what it stands for in broad terms and offer the public a vision. ... And it has constantly re-invented itself based on polls and its consultants limited vision of what is tactically advantageous in any given election"

This talks not about the ALP but the US Democrats, though one could be forgiven for confusing which country we are living in these days. [Hint: It used to be Australia once.] Perhaps the most telling indictment of both our current governments is their new-found unwillingness to own up to the radical extent of their conservative agendas - perhaps a lot less of the 3-4% majority that elected them this time would do so again knowing their actual ideology. Not that any political party seems to have an agenda beyond Control and Profit at Any Cost.

It is apparently moderate to tell the electorate that "American voters have backed [Bush's] agenda for sweeping change at home and abroad, and Democrats and others must work with [Bush] or be left behind". One should also carefully note the assertion that his domestic re-election is a mandate for change "abroad".

Item posted by AutoEditor at 1:09 pm ::