Pirate's Cove

The NY Times Editorial Board attempts to discuss the destruction of ‘climate change’ in last Friday’s Australian elections, and it appeared, up front, that they would perhaps be noting that people care less about ‘climate change’ in favor of pocketbook politics in a rational manner with a subhead noting “Once again, analysts overestimated the resonance of climate change and underestimated the power of economic populism.” Alas, no, the article bogs down

An Electoral Brush Fire in Australia

It was another election that couldn’t be lost until it was. Rived by years of infighting, Australia’s conservative governing coalition was trailing in the polls. The opposition Labor Party’s polls showed it all but certain of ousting Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and its action platform on climate change seemed bound to resonate in a country devastated by drought, heat waves, brush fires and the loss of its magnificent Great Barrier Reef to warming seas.

On Saturday, in another surprise of the sort that had stunned Americans and Britons, Australian voters handed Mr. Morrison what he called a “miracle” victory. His conservative Liberal-National coalition, sharply opposed to cutting down on carbon emissions and coal, is expected to take 77 seats, one more than enough for a majority.

Stunned! Only by those who weren’t paying attention to the notion that focusing everything on an issue that is basically low hanging fruit on the scale of What People Care About is a really, really Bad Idea.

In hindsight, there are many reasons Mr. Morrison defied predictions. One was his success in projecting himself as the average Joe, a rugby-loving, beer-drinking evangelical Christian in a baseball cap who peppered his speeches with folksy Australianisms and slogans like “a fair go for those who have a go.” Urban Australians rolled their eyes, but polls show that whatever they thought of his party, the larger pool of those Mr. Morrison called the “quiet Australians” — a category similar to those who voted for Brexit or President Trump — consistently favored him over the Labor Party’s Bill Shorten.

In other words, the entitled urbanites, who always think they are Better Than Everyone Else, should put aside their sneering and condescension and get a clue. Just like here in 2016.

The troubling message was that even on an island-continent where the ravages of climate change are there for all to see, especially after the hottest summer on record, invocations of economic stability, secure jobs, cuts to immigration and conservative family values trump the unknowns and costs of dealing with climate change.

Got that? It’s a troubling message to campaign on issues that citizens actually care about, things that involve their pocketbooks, instead of campaigning on Hotcoldwetdry. This is the type of elitist message that ended with Trump elected president. The type of elitist message that saw Brexit succeed (in a vote, anyhow) and the climate nutters lose in Australia.

And the NYTEB still doesn’t get that it’s not a troubling message at all, and that people really do not care about ‘climate change’ beyond theory, and they offer some bad advice to end the piece

Mr. Morrison confounded the pundits with his victory. He could now confound them even more by showing that he is ready to lead Australia, a country where the ravages of man-made climate change are most evident, in fighting back. As the first director of Tourism Australia, Mr. Morrison approved the cheeky “So where the bloody hell are you?”advertising campaign. The next target of that Australian brashness should be the climate. Otherwise, a new generation of voters will be putting that question to him when the next election rolls around in three years’ time.

And if Morrison starts pushing Hotcoldwetdry policies, he and his party will lose. Elites like the NYTEB just do not get it.