Re: <nettime> some reflections from australia on recent events here - the demise of zombie politics?

[Angela Mitropoulos <s0metim3s@gmail.com>]

Hey Martin,

Far from being regarded as someone who can "speak directly to people," 
during his term as PM, Rudd was renowned for his use of convoluted 
corporate buzzwords, being too smarty-pants elitist, and (almost 
unforgivable in this country) speaking Mandarin. I preferred that 
figure, I have to say - though I would never vote for him or the ALP. 
But his conversion into an "ordinary family man" has had everything to 
do with his decision this last year to adopt the same discourse that the 
Liberal Party has in the lead up to a contest with Gillard. Namely, that 
she is not "ordinary," which in this instance is conservative "dog 
whistle" for her being "unmarried, childless, atheistic," -- ie, 'not 
normal.' The matter of the "coup" simply feeds into this, not least 
because I can't recall a leader of any party who has ascended to the 
position without bitter internal conflict. Tony Abbott toppled Malcolm 
Turnbull, Keating overthrew Hawke, it all seemed rather nasty but 
routine. I don't see why Gillard's ascendancy should be regarded as any 
different.

But you are right to hate the Labor Party for their policies on border 
control, and you know my position on this. What this means, given that 
the Liberals and Labor are indistinguishable on this question, is that 
the former long ago realised that a contest about race and border 
control would not deliver the affective mobilisation/opposition that one 
around sex and gender would. Of course, racism and sexism are never 
separable, but whereas in the US the Tea Party converges around 
resentment and paranoia about a Black President, here the same strategy 
is being configured in relation to a female Prime Minister. Whatever 
Rudd's flaws are, I baulk not at the man but at the neoconservative 
political strategy he and his campaign advisor/

best,
Angela

--
//angela.mitropoulos |  http://s0metim3s.com |


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