The ‘delcons’ are finished

REAL conservatives know repeating the error of another leadership coup would just deliver our country into the hands of a rotten Labor party, writes Miranda Devine.

Tony Abbott in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

HAVING coined the term “delcon” last April, I now declare it dead.

Delcon stands for delusional conservative: someone who thinks Tony Abbott was a conservative PM who will be restored to his throne, because, of course, another leadership coup just guarantees electoral success.

Their hopes dashed time and again as the partyroom remained unmoved by their sturm und drang, delcons tried Peter Dutton as stalking horse, but no one bought it. In desperation, they’ve even dropped the fatwa on their bete noire, Julie Bishop.

Many are coming to the reluctant realisation that Abbott won’t be coming back.

Therefore, they cease to be delcons. They are simply seekers of vengeance and vindication, V2-bombers, if you like.

Tony Abbott has not ruled out a return to the Prime Minister’s office if supported by his party. (Pic: Kym Smith)

This is perfectly rational. Bad blood is the inevitable outcome of assassinating a first-term, democratically-elected prime minister, even a counterfeit conservative.

Which is why actual conservatives know their mission is to save the emerging green shoots of cultural and economic recovery almost destroyed by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd debacle, not to repeat the error of another leadership coup. A bloody-minded Liberal martyrdom operation would just deliver our country into the hands of a Labor Party so rotten that decent people long ago deserted it.

Of course, Malcolm Turnbull is his own worst enemy, who can’t be stopped yelling down the phone at people. He has no political nous and nor does his office of nice, highly-paid beta-types.

One conversation with Gary Johns, for instance, and Turnbull would discover a brilliant Howardesque political fix for one of his most intractable problems: Remove the GST on electricity. Bills slashed, budget barely dented, instant electoral dividends.

For all the shortcomings of the Turnbull government, rational conservatives know that a Shorten prime ministership would be infinitely worse than the reign of “Malleable Mal”.

When one of the delcons’ leading lights is Graham “Richo” Richardson, the “whatever it takes” guy who just won some lifetime achievement membership from Labor, you know they’ve been had.

Delcons are now courting the support of Julie Bishop. (Pic: Ian Munro)

By their jihadist nature, delcons long ago forfeited the right to be called conservative. A conservative preserves and protects, doesn’t burn down the house and everyone inside it, in the baseless hope that it will miraculously rebuild itself.

Instead, conservatives patiently prepare for the times to suit them. Christian conservatives in America, for instance, held their noses and backed a barbarian for president because they understood you don’t always need a conservative at the top to achieve conservative aims. In dark times, when the cultural left is ascendant, what conservatives need most is to be left alone to do their subversive thing, building strong families and protecting institutions.

Out of that space will emerge a battle-ready conservative leader of courage and integrity, whose time has come.

In the meantime, “delcon” can go back to being the name of an obscure variety of the species “Malus domestica” — a red apple.