I am in complete sympathy with Jennifer Bush Pearls and Irritations 5, June 2023 in resigning from the Labor Party because of Prime Minister Albanese’s congratulations to Israel despite its government’s disgraceful treatment of Palestinian people.
Brand Loyalty. That indescribable loyalty, we feel towards our own country, our own football team, our own political party. It has led us into trouble on many occasions. It continues to do so.
For example: One could only admire Barack Obama, a man of colour rising to become president of the United States. A great orator, a man who defeated George W Bush; he received a Nobel Prize for that, at least that is what I like to think. He also authored a book entitled Overthrow detailing America’s nefarious record in overthrowing foreign governments. Yet, he was in power when the chain of events leading to the current war in Ukraine started. And not coincidentally, his vice president Joe Biden was deeply involved in this overthrow. Obama was also responsible for new wars in Syria, Libya, and continuation of ongoing ones. Also, it can be argued that the failure to fully deal with the fallout from the Global Financial Crisis leaving many people feeling disenfranchised leading to the current polarisation in middle America can be partly attributed to him.
He is a Democrat and because I consider myself centre left (socially liberal but fiscally conservative) then I identify with him but must admit that he is not blame free.
Brand loyalty can also be blamed for the fact that most Republicans still support Donald Trump despite his appalling record with women and his involvement in the efforts to overthrow the democratically elected government in 2000.
In Australia, Labor voters supported Julia Gillard. Her speech in Parliament challenging Tony Abbot for misogyny will go down in the annals as one of the greatest speeches in Australian parliament. But she was the one that commended this current madness by announcing (in concert with Obama) that, starting in 2012, US Marines would deploy to Darwin on a rotational basis for about six months to conduct exercises and train with the Australian Defence Force in the Northern Territory. Thus began the slide and it was accelerated under subsequent liberal governments culminating with the current AUKUS fiasco.
But we were entitled to think that a new Labor government would seriously examine commitments made by the “accidental prime minister” Scott Morrison. True enough, for political reasons they had not announced such a review, but I and the Chinese Australians who voted to put the Government in power expected such a review. Instead, we go the sham reviews carried out by Defence Minister Marles and his “advisers”.
I am in complete sympathy with Jennifer Bush Pears and Irritations 5, June 2023 in resigning from the Labor Party because of Prime Minister Albanese’s congratulations to Israel despite its government’s disgraceful treatment of Palestinian people in their land that it occupies and at a time when Israel is very clearly in defiance of United Nations resolutions. In congratulating Israel, Albanese and by inference the Labor Party is turning “a blind eye to the ongoing persecution of millions of people who have a right to live in peace and freedom in the land of their ancestors” these words from a Holocaust survivor. I too supported Israel until I learned the full story of its establishment, and I changed my mind as I did with the Vietnam war when I learned the true history behind it. Ms Bush has courageously forsaken brand loyalty for logic, compassion and to be on the right side of history.
There are other brave Labor Party members who are reconsidering their life-time allegiance to the Party (or the current leadership) because of its embarkation on the foolish policy of AUKUS.
What to do, when the leadership of both major parties are counting on brand loyalty of a large proportion of the population who do not think for themselves? Perhaps, somehow bring to bear the universally admired President John F Kennedy: Jeffrey Sachs Pearls and Irritations 8, June 2023.
And today, to rub salt in the wound, the first salvo on new taxes. Supposedly to pay for increasing costs of aged care, but in an accounting system where all money is fungible, to pay for the enormous ill-considered costs of a few nuclear submarines.
Blessed are the Peace-makers. Truer words have never been spoken.
Barry Trembath
Barry Trembath is a retired hydropower engineer living in Sydney who spent about 45 years working in developing countries living in five before joining the World Bank where he worked for 17 years. He worked in 24 provinces and province level cities in China.
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