Divided We Fall

There are clear lessons to be learnt at the moment for our fledgling Administration from the behaviour of the opposition parties in both the US and our own federal government. You will no doubt remember that the US Democrats have reclaimed the House and Senate for the first time in over a decade (but while Bush is President remain the ‘opposition’ in some sense), while our beleaguered Labor party has been in opposition for a similar period.

The Democrats have started badly, only a matter of weeks after their landslide election victories – disrupted by internal conflict and factional fighting. Their designated leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi (who will be the first woman Speaker ever) has struggled to bring together the disparate factions within the party and to present a united public front. This was most evident in the Party’s debate over the House Majority leader – Pelosi’s deputy. In short, her favoured candidate, John Murtha was easily beaten by incumbent Steny Hoyer, despite her urgings. To the media, this was indicative that her hold over the Party was weak. It also indicates that if your friend (Murtha) is an outspoken proponent of an immediate withdrawal from Iraq and has been tainted by decade old corruption allegations, then you shouldn’t advocate his promotion (Hoyer isn’t free of the stink of corruption either, but is held in marginally higher regard). Following this embarrassment, Pelosi is working to extinguish the fire started by left-leaning Charles Rangel who is proposing the obviously controversial reintroduction of the military draft. As she tries to galvanize public support, fringe Democrats are pursing extreme issues. Ultimately, the factions within the Democratic Party are at war, and that is no way to win the Presidency in 2008.

That story seems all too familiar as Federal Labor play factional games and destroy their public credibility. The question of party leadership has again resurfaced, possibly after Kevin Rudd read my post about Beazley being unelectable. The Opposition Leader’s recent mistaking of Karl Rove (US political advisor) and Rove McManus was yet another nail in his political coffin. The caucus is divided over sticking with the mis-speaking Beazley, known election loser – or upgrading to the unknown quantities of Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard or maybe even Wayne Swan. Opinion polls, for what they’re worth, show that Julia Gillard is the most favoured and electable as far as the public is concerned and Kevin Rudd is the least. The problem is that few Party members are thinking about the most electable candidate and most are concerned with the power of right and left within their own ranks. Gillard is from the ‘Ferguson Left’ and is in the minority, as is current deputy leader Jenny Macklin who belongs to the slightly larger Socialist Left. All the numbers are with the Right of the Party which boasts the allegiances of Beazley, Rudd, Swan, Simon Crean, and Stephen Smith to name a few. In the end, if Beazley is replaced it’s likely to be by another personality-free drone from the Right – despite the presence of brighter, more publicly popular candidates.

Its one of the oldest cliché’s around: united we stand, divided we fall - and yet many of our politicians are oblivious. If either the Dems or Labor is serious about challenging for control of their governments they need unity, and more importantly, the vision to propose a candidate that can win – and not just please internal party agitators and power brokers. This Administration can see the error of these policies, and is committed not only to unity, but to offering leaders that the public can get behind and be proud to vote for.