With the change in Government in Australia, it is becoming increasingly clear that the right side of politics here needs to get a lot more organised in its strategic thinking. Unlike the US for example, which has developed a model to return right wing thinking to the populous, in Australia, the right is in retreat.
Which is a shame. Traditionally and historically, Australia has been a conservative nation. We need to start finding those policies and views that will mobilise the right wing and earn a path way back to power.
In the US, the right was in decline after the decline of George W Bush and the start of the Obama years. But then the Tea Party movement started, which was a focus on fiscal discipline. This then turned into Trumpism with the election of Trump whose influence is very strong in at least 2 out of the 3 areas of Governance...the legal and the Congressional Something similar needs to be started here.
A lot of the themes used in the Tea Party Movement could be adapted here
1. Fiscal Conservatism (Less Taxes, Less Debt, smaller government spending)
2. Social Conservatism (Family values, Religious Values, less feminism, less trans-activism, less LGBTI policies, less immigration)
3. Freedom (less government policy in general. Less regulation)
4. Patriotism.
But we need a framework and a narrative to couple these broad themes into action.
I was examining the use of the 5 belief framework by Eidelson and Eidelson. The idea is to view the actions of the Left through a prism of its impact on the ordinary populous to perceive them as a negative and then provide the right as a solution.
The 5 Domains of this framework are as follows
Superiority : Need to believe that the Right is superior to the Left in terms of the ordinary people. That the policies of the right will make the populous better and the left will cause harm. This could be done in the realms of morals, economics, intelligence etc. However the Left dominates in the spheres of culture and academia which is a source of concern. That said, the left dominates in those fields in the US, but has not affected the power of the right.
Injustice: Need to believe the Left are mistreating the ordinary people by taking opportunities away, making people poorer. Could be union membership denying people the right to decide what is best for themselves, less salary negotiation. Need an enemy that is either the Left wing of Government, or an ally of the left. Targets could include Unions, Teachers, the Arts (like Hollywood), LGBTI, Indigenous organisations etc. Left has been able to acheive success here around Business.
Vulnerability: Need to believe that the ordinary people are in peril by the actions of the Left. This could be regarding unemployment, standard of living, energy security, food security, defence etc. The left have been very good at adapting this message to Climate change as a source of their power against he right. The right need to apply this better as well to adapt to counter this. Traditionally this has been Defence or Terrorism. To say Climate change is so far in the future, yet China, Russia, Islamic fundamentalism is a threat to the here and now.
Distrust: Need to focus on the lies or corrupt behaviour of the Left. The left traditionally have been corrupted by money and power. The right, generally by sex scandals. The narrative that Labor is not to be trusted needs to be promoted at every opportunity. This was successfully deployed by Tony Abbott against Julia Gillard and the Carbon Tax.
Helplessness: The populous need to believe they cannot solve theses issues themselves and hence need to rely on the right and its allies for success.
So areas to focus on
1. Patriotism (Australia is superior to all other nationalities, is being treated badly by the UN and China, is vulnerable to sanctions and hostile powers, cannot trust the global environment, and needs the right policies to save them)
2. Mens rights (Men are superior to women, are being treated badly by government and women, is facing an existential threat due to policies that favour women, cannot trust women to work in our interests, needs the right policies to save them)
3. Religion (Catholics morally superior to atheists, under attack by secular policies and the LGBTI community, cannot trust government or the law to protect religious right, needs the right policies to save them)
4. Education (Learning focus in public education, under attack by private schools and teachers union which detracts from quality, Labor cannot be trusted to help with education as they are in thrall with the unions, needs the right policies to remove diversity/trans stuff from curriculum)
5. Government Spending (Less Spending better than more spending. Taking away opportunities for small business, Debt becoming unworkable, needs to be reduced, Cant rely on the left as they grow the public sector, Needs the right policies to reduce the deficit/debt
