The Australian newspaper is a Murdoch owned publication and as such has a very right wing bent to it. Very right wing. In fact it is so biased as to be usually unreadable for these eyes. Tony Windsor, the former independent Federal MP for New England once tweeted that Murdoch papers were only good for wiping your backside! Very telling from a country MP.
Now I don’t care one iota who you vote for. Your political leaning has nothing to do with me and for the most part I respect the decision of the electorate to tick whatever names they want on the ballot paper when an election rolls around. But those writing to the feedback columns in The Australian are nuts. Really!
Before I go any further I will state that there are plenty of biased left wing nuts around too but as I stumbled onto an online article published in The Australian, the right-wingers will be my target for today. Not Liberal voters. Right wingers who are so far right they are veering onto the wrong side of the road such is their conviction.
It was an article about US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Australia for the G20 conference and the speech he made at the University of Queensland in which he put global warming front and centre and apparently made conservative global warming deniers in attendance squirm in their seats.
The Australian government as most would know sit firmly in the camp of the global warming deniers. “Global warming is crap” is a famous quote from our far-sighted and visionary Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a comment he made some years before assuming the highest office in the land. Since being elected in September 2014 his government has scrapped the Carbon Tax and seem intent on ignoring all the advice coming from the the world’s best scientists and even the United Nations which has accepted that global warming is a real phenomenon and unprecedented action needs to be taken to save the world from it’s drastic effects.
Australia and Canada, which seems to have an equally conservative and retrograde regime in power under Mr Harper, are two of the industrialised countries which are really turning their backs on global warming action. Even China, that monolith of modern industry is talking of setting targets for the reduction of carbon emissions into the future. A journey of a thousand miles starts with one small step.
The article in question in The Australian today claims that Mr Obama twice ignored the advice of his embassy in Australia in regard to his speech at the University of Queensland. The local embassy is responsible for giving advice to a visiting world leader as to the political climate in the country and what is and isn’t advisable for the particular world leader to mention in speeches and remarks. While it is not unprecedented apparently for a US President to ignore the advice of his ambassador, it is unusual.
The advice centered on the Australian government’s recalcitrant stance on global warming and the jist of the article is that they advised the President to stay away from the subject in his speech at UQ.
Of course anyone who saw and listened to the speech would know that it was very strong on rhetoric in regard to saving the planet from global warming and reducing carbon emissions and pollution in general. And Australia’s conservative leaders weren’t happy with the big fella from all accounts. So be it.
So, I read the article and was silly enough to keep scrolling into the feedback column where conservative voters vented their considerable anger and rage at Mr Obama. “A dud” some roared with indignation. “America’s version of Rudd and Gillard” others continued. “An insult to the host country” others insisted. “Thank God he can’t run for a third term” some hissed. Of course it got nasty and the lone centre-left voice which appeared on the page was smite with all the power of a Panzer-Grenadier Division in full attack as the global warming deniers swarmed the barricades and took no prisoners. The depth of aggression and narrow mindedness displayed was disconcerting. Does ASIO monitor these forums?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course and I respectfully acquiesce to the experts who predict global temperatures will rise into the future. If you don’t agree that’s okay but please don’t get all ansty and aggressive on me!
Mr Obama as the President of the United States is the most influential politician in the world. He has his battles at home and is now what they call a “lame duck” President due to his Democratic Party losing it’s majority in the Congress. He has his own battle with Republicans to fight in order to get his agenda through and the right wing of American politics is as fearful of action on global warming as their compatriots and like-minded brethren in Australia. It will be an uphill battle for him to enact any positive legislation in his last two years as President. But is there anything wrong with him setting an agenda and trying to point the ship in the right direction? I think he gets it. The world is heading the wrong way and he will use his significant influence to try to turn the ship and put us on the right path. The haters be damned. A journey of a thousand miles starts with one small step.
If the far right wing cadre who write for The Australian or the Herald Sun or whatever other worthless rag Murdoch spews his vile froth from don’t like President Obama’s lead and the ignorant readers who lap it up like a starving dog devours dropped leftovers find it abhorrent then so be it. It’s called leadership. Mr Obama may not go down as a great President but he is keeping the fight against global warming on the agenda against the odds.
And I won’t be scrolling through the feedback section of The Australian again anytime soon!
“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”
-President John F Kennedy (1917-1963)
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 