Australian Politics

“Howard’s battlers/working families” as a way to make relatively well-off people feel like victims.

Yea, my general take on Aus politics since the 90s is that Liberals have done their own version of the Republican Southern strategy thing with the battlers, knowing that they can drag the wealthy business focused conservatives along with them. Meanwhile, Labor struggles to think of itself as anything other than a party the straddles the progressive / "battler" latte-line, and so, as that gap has widened, grown taller and more instilled, the party hasn't been able to form a base at the federal level and has been losing primary votes since the 80s. They've not been able to drag either branch along with them the same way the liberals have.

The teals have disrupted this pattern though, perhaps (finally) creating a 2x2 political compass in Aus and it remains the biggest X factor for general federal politics out of this referendum ... is this a strategic win or loss for the liberals given how much "elites" voted yes and Dutton maybe looks the most "Dutton" he has this term.