Greens could replace morally wayward Labor

Now Labor has had support from some people with the conservative foundations. The tribal loyalty of the NSW Right and the Catholic-Labor social conservatism are examples.

So, too, the Coalition has had support from people with liberal moral foundations. The Menzies ideal of individual liberty – especially in the economic arena – is an example.

But in the Howard years, the Coalition shed virtually all pretense of small-l liberalism. The liberal moral foundations of justice, equality, empathy, altruism and kindness were virtually junked. Authority, respect and sanctity became paramount.

The small-l liberal part of the Coalition has been axed: Fraser, Chaney, Macphee, Puplick and the like do not fit in the new Coalition which has emphasised conservative moral foundations at the expense of liberal ones.

Everyone knows where they are with the Coalition these days: patriotism, self-sacrifice, religious purity, deference to authority, and respect.

Not so on the Labor side. Whereas the Coalition has junked liberal moral foundations, the Labor Party has not junked conservative moral foundations. Gay marriage, euthanasia and empathy for refugees – liberal moral foundations – are off Labor’s radar. Patriotism (the mad Afghan adventure) and sanctity are firmly on it.

In short, voters don’t know where they are with Labor. More than 20 years on from the fall of the Wall Australian Labor has not worked out its moral foundations. Voters do not know and cannot tell whether its moral foundations are liberal or conservative.

On the other hand, it was relatively easy for the Coalition to junk liberal values after the Wall came down and communism was shown as an impractical defiance of human nature. Deference to individual liberty in social matters (even in defiance of the conservative authority and sanctity moral foundations) was a bulwark against the threat of communism. Once that threat went, individual liberty was less important in the Coalition view.

Let’s now return to Gilbert and Sullivan and all those boys and gals in Australia who are either liberal or conservative, the liberals.

In 2007, Labor attracted a fair number of voters with conservative moral foundations – particularly loyalty, the bedrock of unionism. Loyalty to unionism and the “Labor cause” – essentially a conservative moral foundation – gave Labor a lot of support. The Gillard removal of Rudd offended voters who held as important the conservative moral foundation of loyalty.

Further, Labor’s adherence to the Afghanistan foray and its “let’s-hope-it-will-go-away” attitude to gay marriage, the republic and euthanasia and its “more-brutal-than-now” attitude to boat refugees left people with liberal moral foundations only two places to go – despair or the Greens.

The liberal-conservative divide is so strong in human affairs – because of the evolutionary experience – that it is unsurprising that the two-party system (or variants on it) has developed. In multi-party systems the parties usually are categorised on one side or the other.