This piece was first published in the Sun Herald yesterday.
OK, it’s Howard and Bush v Latham at the federal election. Howard’s 2004 replica of his fear-and-anxiety 2001 Tampa victory is “Vote for me or the Yanks will abandon us”.
Venus crossing the sun last Tuesday – an event the world’s people watched in awe and that no one has seen since 1882 – heralded the confirmation of Howard’s and Latham’s war plans, and boy oh boy did their visions of who we are and what we stand for clash. Peter Garrett and the Bush boys bounced off each other to define the election battleground. It’s David v Goliath folks, and Latham must be praying we’ll live up to our reputation for backing the underdog.
Abstract thinkers have taken to calling Europe Venus and the US Mars. Which planet – which view of maximising the chances of peace and happiness – will we Aussies choose to hang our hats on in 2004?
Anti-war, anti-nuclear weapons campaigner Peter Garrett is a mainstream conservationist who brought greenies and farmers together to try to save our land and preserve our water, and who sang songs which made many of us feel proud to be Australian. Now Latham punches him into a safe seat. Latham really does want to smash the corrupt NSW Labor machine and, through sheer audacity, regenerate the Labor Party for the 21st century.
At the same time, the Bush dump on Latham beside a smugly smiling Howard in Washington was shown to be the launch of brutally explicit threats by the Bush administration to abandon the American alliance if we elect Latham. That is, Bush and Howard have agreed to do whatever it takes to get each other re-elected this year, whatever the cost.
Howard is confident he can scare us into voting for him again out of deliberately, cynically engineered fear. Then again, the transparency of the fear politics and its disregard for the national interest of either Australia or America might make some voters think a vote for Howard is a vote for Bush. Some might even think that a vote for Latham would encourage the American people to chuck Bush out and elect a sane, competent and decent administration that would increase the odds of peace and promote enduring Western values throughout the world.
The election campaign has begun, and I reckon Howard will make us vote in August to capitalise on the momentum he and his Bush mates are building before we work out their self-serving spin. Here’s what Web diarists think:
Rod Smith in Sydney: “This is risky and flamboyant politics by both Latham and Garrett and I love it. I’d vote for Garrett because he has always been true to what he believes in. I want Garrett to keep singing the songs of the Oils in his political life and inspire free thought and policy in Australian politics.”
Nick W: “As a committed Howard lover I am over the moon about Peter Garrett joining Labor. It’s just another nail in Labor’s coffin – now we have two outspoken anti-American MPs in the Labor Party. Australia will reject Labor – if they rejected a Hawkish pro-American Beazley then they’re not going to risk our alliance on Latham.”
Shannon Roy: “The bleating about the US alliance being on the table in this election is idiotic. It’s a strong alliance because Australia and the US need each other. We need our ‘great and powerful’ friend and they need their large, immobile aircraft carrier (we call it Australia) in the middle of the Pacific/Indian oceans – and a politically stable place to handle the information nexus of this hemisphere (Pine Gap et al). Don’t make the mistake of taking George W(MD) Bush at his word. That would simply compound the foolishness of having done it twice already.”
Chris Murphy: “Bush and his mates are clearly mad. Not content with severing friendship with long-serving European allies, they now threaten to turn their backs on one of their closest allies if its people employ their basic democratic rights. At least now we can be sure what ‘friendship’ really means.”
John Richardson in Sydney: “In asserting that torture is justified by ‘necessity and self-defence’, the Bush Administration has embraced the doctrine that the ends justify the means and that the law of the jungle should override the rule of law. Unless the morally bankrupt administrations of Bush, Blair and Howard are removed, we will all have become terrorists.”
Get the picture? This election will be wild, maybe the wildest since 1975. It’s the most important election in my lifetime. Are we prepared to insist on our independence and demand to be treated by America as a friend, not a slave? Does always saying yes to the United States mean that we can never say no?
Fasten your seatbelts for the “Never-say-no-to-the-Yanks-or-else” election.
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READER QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Greg Carroll
“We can only hope that Latham sticks with the politics of hope and continues to assert Australia’s independence and national pride. It’s crash or crash through time for Latham, but I wouldn’t be too pessimistic. I reckon people know when a government is pissing all over them. Howard looks increasingly desperate, and running to Big Brother George for help won’t have much impact on how people vote. Maintain the rage!”