Goodbye Menzies

Let me now emphasise clearly that extremism is not confined to the political Right. It thrives just as vividly over on the Left as shown by the election of Jeremy Corbyn to lead the British Labour Party. He is as close to a total nutter as I have seen. It was his supporters who formed the backbone of the vote to leave Europe. They and the low income retirees just wanted to tell David Cameron and the Tories, and their fallacy of ‘trickle down economics’, to go to hell.

So, we come to the crucial question. Is there a leader of the stature of Menzies who can now rise up and form a powerful party of pragmatist visionaries in the political centre? I can’t see one at present as the brighter ones in the Liberals and ALP seem to be locked into those parties and new blood does not come forward from outside because they don’t want to be snared into a dead end of political ideology.

So what do ordinary Aussies like you and I do? Shoot ourselves or go to live on a tropical island. I intend to lodge protest votes with Independents until the main stream parties have the common sense and the will to reform because they will have no other option.

I voted for Menzies in every election that he contested. Then, when he departed, I moved to Gough Whitlam, as brilliant a visionary as I have seen in my lifetime, but without the ability to implement those visions. Eventually, I  strongly backed John Howard as he appeared to be a Menzies man, but I departed sadly when he teamed up with George Bush and also masterminded the Tampa affair that sent refugees to a terrible fate.

One day, the right leader will turn up unexpectedly in Australia in a similar way as Lincoln did in USA when he came out of the backblocks to reach the White House.