Mainstream slays Twitter left

The electoral bloodbath for Jeremy Corbyn and British Labour, especially in the party’s working-class heartland and among the middle class, too, is a repudiation of the ideological left. Out of touch and out of power. Take out the recycling, Labour, switch off the lights, look for a new leader. Twitter loses, yet again, hit by the mainstream freight train of practical politics. We saw this movie play out in our own country in May. Bill Shorten, propped up by an obliging news media support crew and the loudest voices in tweetland, tried to shunt Australia to the left but he met an irresistible force — reality. In trying to win, Labor’s former leader spouted a gloomy narrative about a dystopian nation most voters could not recognise.

Mr Shorten prosecuted a case for the negative: workers were being dudded, the system was rigged for the rich, capitalism was broken. His solutions — including $387bn in new taxes on retirees, investors and high-earners; re-regulation of wage-setting and income redistribution; social engineering in pursuit of progressive symbolism; and bold, uncosted emissions reduction targets — were judged to be extreme by middle Australia. Like Mr Corbyn, Mr Shorten was deeply unpopular with the electorate, a huge drag on his party’s primary vote. Labor won a paltry 33.3 per cent of first preferences.

Understanding the mind and mood of suburban voters, Scott Morrison pitched a narrow, deliverable set of policies. He under-promised, offering a practical platform for the near term: personal income tax cuts, a budget surplus, quick-build infrastructure projects and political stability. After the leadership tumult of the Coalition’s first two terms, and Labor’s fratricides in office, the public is actually fed up with democracy itself, seen as dysfunctional; voters’ trust in politicians is as low as it was when Gough hit the rough in 1975.

Mr Morrison called supporters “quiet Australians” in a moment of jubilation and scripted opportunism. He tapped the vibe, joining hands with people who simply want to get on with their lives — working, saving, raising kids — rather than be in the trenches of the identity politics gripping Labor and the Greens. Australians, too, are no longer as rusted on to the major parties. As the Australian National University’s election survey showed, 30 per cent of voters identified as Labor partisans and 32 per cent as Liberals, the lowest levels recorded since the series began in 1967.

Populists of the left and right are fracturing major party support, stoking grievance and false hope. The antidote to this rancour is to pitch practical policies, sometimes by stealing the ground from under the extremists, as Boris Johnson has now skilfully done in Britain and Mr Morrison did in May. Both are leaders of broad, centre-right parties of government and are non-ideological; critics often call them opportunists, light on dogma, and big on identifying ways to turn fluid times to their advantage. They thrive on the chance of politics. To this coterie we can add Donald Trump, an outlier to be sure, but one with a coherent political game plan. Strip away the bluster and erratic policy plays, and there is a master of today’s frantic politics.

Although they may not like Mr Trump personally, his right-wing populism won over the Democrats’ heartland in 2016 via a mix of economic nationalism to protect jobs and low taxes to spur growth. President Trump stands a good chance of re-election as long as opponents continue their fringe politicking. This is best shown in the “woke” identity and soft-Marxist postures of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. They win noisy support on liberal arts college campuses and social media. But socialism scares the daylights out of middle-of-the-road folks in the rust belt and the suburbs.

Amid a rising swell of populism, Mr Johnson has shown political leaders that you can lose the battle on Twitter but win the war for the electoral centre ground with social and economic pragmatism and a dose of patriotism. As well, by respecting the will of the people on Brexit and trusting voters, Mr Johnson has struck a positive note for democracy itself, as it comes under assault from within and without, in Britain, Europe, the US and Australia.