In a July 9 opinion piece in the Sydney morning Herald, we meet this shouty headline: Left’s identity crisis means Dutton can be a champion for equality. The piece is by the ex Liberal Senator George Brandis; he doesn’t disappoint us with opinions we’d never expected from him.
Let’s do a little (a very little – I’ve got a life) deconstruction just of this headline. No prizes for guessing Mr. Brandis wants his reader to rigorously associate Labor with the Left [though Labor is about as left as a median strip dividing a road in two]. And the ideal Brandis reader will have little difficulty with agreeing that Labor’s identity is indeed flawed. Why not in crisis? And if we can believe that Labor is some sort of left-wing plotter then we’ll have no difficulty in accepting Pierre (Fraternity, Liberty etc.) Dutton as a champion of equality.
One should read a little further than the Headline, of course. So let’s check out the bon mots of para 1:
When the US Supreme Court recently struck down the affirmative action admission policies of Harvard University on the basis that they violated the 14th amendment (the “equal protection clause”), the howls of outrage from the left of politics were predictable.
Brandis, G.
So – no surprise, of course – ex senator Brandis approves of the right wing nutter dominated Supreme Court ‘s decision to do away with affirmative action processes in universities such as that arch left wing Harvard et al. And he does so – via parenthetic inference in para 1 – on the grounds that it [the striking down, that is – ooh the violence, gotta love it] affirms in fact equality. Just as voting No in Australia’s Voice referendum will mean you are for equality here – if I may digress slightly; it’s like fornication to preserve virginity. And so we neatly segue into the fantasy world of Dutton as some Don Quixote tilting at INEQUALITIES’ windmills.
Inkstained fingers 