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The Left has been left

By Everald Compton - posted Friday, 20 December 2019


Jeremy Corbyn has led British Labour to a massive defeat.

Bill Shorten led the Australian ALP to the loss of an election that should never have been lost.

Hilary Clinton led her left wing Democrats to lose an American Presidential Election to a candidate who will be remembered as the worst President in American History.

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These astonishing events lead us to ask the question,

WILL A CANDIDATE FROM THE LEFT EVER WIN A MAJOR ELECTION AGAIN?

And how is it that this all happened.?

Let's look for a moment at all three.

Corbyn went into the British Elections with a massive manifesto of policies, many of which were highly radical, such as buying back the British Rail System and allowing everyone to travel free so as to get traffic off the roads.

Most voters never ever got around to reading his manifesto because Boris Johnson went out on the hustings saying over and over again 'Let's get Brexit done, lets get rid of the pain of recent years'. This is all that most people had on their minds when they filled out their ballot papers.

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Corbyn recorded the lowest percentage of the vote for his Party since 1934, whereas Boris had a higher margin of victory than Thatcher achieved in her prime.

Shorten is a far better leader than Corbyn, but made the same mistake. He put out 150 policies and failed to sell any of them.

Morrison had one speech and it was entitled, 'Don't trust Shorten, he will take all your money in high taxes'. It was a killer line.

Fascinatingly, Morrison won only one more seat than Turnbull achieved in the previous election, but all the polls had predicted he would lose by 20.

Over in USA in 2016, Trump had one speech only. It was called 'I am going to drain the swamp in Washington' and millions of voters yearned to help him drain that swamp.

Hilary presented herself as the Queen of the American Establishment and directed all her speeches to please the great and the mighty. In the end, most voters did not trust her. They believed that she was not one of them.

So, what can be learned from those humiliations.

I think it really is simple. Voters respond to ideas and visions, not policies. They vote for Leaders not Parties.

It is a lesson that those on the Left have not learned. They simply don't talk the language of the average voter.

Does it mean that the Left is finished as a political force? I don't think so, but it is in a deep hole.

They just don't have any leaders to spell out their cause and right now in Australia Anthony Albanese is not cutting through. He gives the impression that he wants to apologise for everything that Shorten ever did and tries to be like Morrison, but does not talk in easy to understand one liners as Morrison does.

But, there is hope that, across the Tasman in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda will become the world standard bearer for those on the Left, even though New Zealand is a tiny isolated nation.

She won election by promising little, but making her opponent look boring. And she comes over as a person of great compassion who leads her nation through difficult times with great courage. Most voters regard her as one of their own, someone who can be trusted.

She has an election coming up in 2020. This will be the real test. If she happens to lose, then the Left world wide will suffer another killer blow because the Left in USA is about to suffer one more hit.

Trump is suffering from the early stages of dementia. This is not a nasty political comment to indicate that I think his policies are demented.

He is not in good mental shape, a fact that will be glaringly obvious when he rants and raves at his Impeachment Trial (which by the way he will win, but it is being staged solely to prove his mental incapacity).

He will serve out his term. Mitt Romney will run as the Republican Candidate in November 2020 and win because Americans are not ready to embrace the economic and social Reformation being promoted by Warren and Sanders (much as that Reformation is needed). Romney will keep it simple and inspirational.

In the long term, the Left must find a way to sell its ground breaking policies in a way that inspires people, sounds sensible and achievable, and makes them feel safe.

Bill Shorten should have gone into Election2019 with one major theme.

'My Government will invest heavily in Climate Change and together all Australians will become far more prosperous than we are today".

He would have won.

Have a Happy Christmas and a great 2020.

And may we all work together to ensure that the divisions in our Society will all disappear.

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This article was first published on Everald Compton.



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About the Author

Everald Compton is Chairman of The Longevity Forum, a not for profit entity which is implementing The Blueprint for an Ageing Australia. He was a Founding Director of National Seniors Australia and served as its Chairman for 25 years. Subsequently , he was Chairman for three years of the Federal Government's Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing.

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