The ALP right faction, whose influence has made the party unelectable for a decade, has aires and graces. "Only our ideas can win," claim the reliable losers. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/don-t-boil-the-ocean-labor-right-plots-the-party-s-return-to-power-20201203-p56kbw.html /1

Note that @JEChalmers' book is "The Write Stuff: Voices of Unity on Labor's Future." It's not Australia's future, it's Labor's. /2

A political party should be energized by a vision for what it thinks the country should be. It should spend its time in opposition fighting for that vision, and its time in Government legislating its implementation. The modern ALP does neither of those things. /3

"Reconnect with the suburbs and stop scoffing at parents who choose to send their children to faith-based schools," is the opposite of vision. Imagine that as your 50 year goal, your society-changing agenda, the raison d'être you take to the community. /4

Labor's problem for the 2020's is that it's packed full of useful idiots who look at the Liberal Party and go, "Well, Australians sure like voting for those guys. If we behave more like them, maybe Australians will like voting for us too!" /5

News flash, fellas: If I want the Liberal Party, I'll vote for the Liberal Party. If you're the same as them, you have nothing to offer.

Nothing. /6

Warnings that "Labor risked alienating Australian families if it did not support their 'dreams, goals and aspirations,'" are the opposite of leadership. /7

Peoples' dreams, goals and aspirations are a function of their material limitations. Your job as an opposition is to paint a picture of what Australia would be like without those limitations. /8

What dreams, goals and aspirations would a worker have if they got a payrise? Or if their could transition into a higher paying job with less hours?

What dreams, goals and aspirations would a disabled person have if medicare looked after primary health? /9

What would the suburbs' dreams, goals and aspirations be if they weren't living hand to mouth on wages that had been flat for a decade and a half? Support THOSE dreams, goals and aspirations, the ones Australians don't even know they have yet. Show us how to get there. /10

Then seal the deal by being trustworthy enough to legislate to implement it. /11

Or don't, I guess. Fuck around with faith based schools if it makes you happy. It's up to you. But you'll never out-Liberal the Liberals, and if that's the maximum scope of your ambition you can all go fuck yourselves. Be better. /end