War is on the horizon and communists are inside your house — or so Scott Morrison wants you to think.
The past two weeks of parliamentary debate gave us some classic Cold War cultural references. The ’50s nostalgia is real. In case you weren’t alive then, here’s a rundown of what it all means and what to look out for in what’s sure to be a national security-heavy election.
Manchurian candidate
The most jarring of cultural references to come out of yesterday’s debate was Morrison labelling Labor’s deputy leader Richard Marles a “Manchurian candidate”. Although the prime minister was forced to withdraw, it left many aghast at the seriousness of the allegation as proof of the lengths he was willing to go to plant the seeds of a national security scare campaign.
The Manchurian Candidate was a 1959 novel by Richard Condon. The son of a US political family was the central character, brainwashed to become an agent for a communist conspiracy. Morrison’s claim about Marles came in reference to a speech Marles gave in China in 2019 around political and economic cooperation.
Even aside from Morrison’s direct use of the term, the Coalition has been heavily implying this conclusion in Parliament with its rhetoric around Labor being China’s preferred government.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton got the closest when he said last week that the Chinese Communist Party had “made a decision about who they’re going to back in the next federal election … and they have picked this bloke [Albanese] as that candidate”.
Fellow traveller
Morrison also managed to drop another Cold War communism reference in his speech, this one even more obscure. Referring to countries that have “chosen to intimidate this country”, he said: “They will not find a fellow traveller when it comes to threats and coercion against Australia in my government.”
“Fellow traveller” is a term straight out of the 1950s that was unfavourably used to describe a communist sympathiser. It was usually used on politicians or academics who weren’t card-carrying members but were seen as a threat for not outwardly condemning communism.
New world order
For the conspiracy theorists out there, the new world order is the suggestion that there are designs for an authoritarian government to take control of the entire world. It is being thrown around in mainstream media, and in its slightly more palatable form suggests a new global structure where China replaces the US as the world’s superpower.
Panic bubbled up after Russia and China flaunted their increasingly tight bond at the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics and said their relationship would be “superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era”. Reactions ranged from panic to downplaying it as a run-of-the-mill PR stunt. Either way, no matter what side of the divide you fall on, everyone’s nostalgic for the ’50s.
Reds under the bed
Communist panic in the ’50s led to the coining of the term “reds under the bed”, depicting some sort of communist bogyman who lurks unseen in familiar places. Morrison appears to be preying on fears of foreign interference. Some in the media are already calling this a “reds under the bed” scare campaign.
Shanghai Sam
Another low blow in the fear-mongering stakes came in the form of the moniker Morison gave Labor senator Sam Dastyari after he resigned over donations tied to the Chinese government. While he tried to deny ever saying it (see lie number 45), it was a lazy and racist attempt at humiliating the former senator.
“The Manchurian Candidate was a 1959 novel by Richard Condon. The son of a US political family was the central character, brainwashed to become an agent for a communist conspiracy.”
That’s misleading because it misses out the candidate. The returned soldier was a brain-washed puppet (not really an agent, he had no idea what he was doing), but he was not the candidate, he was only being used to help the candidate. The Manchurian candidate in the film was a dim-wit US politician (being used by others) destabilising representative democracy by his hysterical McCarthyist anti-red rhetoric and wild accusations. The plot was supposed to create a crisis that would enable a totalitarian dictatorship led by the candidate to take power.
The nearest we have in Australia at present to anyone acting like a Manchurian candidate is either Morrison or Dutton.
Given the appearance of The Radge Orange Bampot, as the Scots have nailed Trump, together with the Russian involvement in the POTUS Election of 2016. it does appear somewhat akin to The Manchurian candidate in that The ROB was The Moscow Candidate.
Given what happened on 06 January 2021 at the Capitol and the now GQP attempts with the voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, voter suppression to grab power it does appear like the plot of the book.
You might need to explain ‘bampot‘ to the precious petals here.
Suggest a visit to Parliamo Glasgow, wherein Stanley Baxter can set Sassanchs straight on Scots!
However radge concerns an individual who consistently acts in a crazy or angry way with bampot adding that they are as well a foolish, unpleasant/obnoxious person.
The canny Scots have summed up Trump to a T!
Morrison’s lot have zero diplomatic skills – from Payne unilaterally calling out China as the originator of Covid (which has cost our exporters (normal LNP supporters) dearly, and Dutton ramping up war – talk (China would crush us in less than a week). always trying to play the macho-man for domestic audience, forgetting that foreign countries afe very aware of our politics on a daily basis.. I guess we could go on ad infinitum with examples of the incompetence!
There would be a lot less war-mongering and actual wars if the agitators and their families, were the first made to go to the front line.
Rather like the middle ages kings who led their troops onto the battle fields , rather than cowering in safe castles
I think it was a cartoon where I saw it, but I’ve been snickering ever since.
The punch line was ” A BUNCH OF HOONS IN A MONARO DECLARE WAR ON CHINA”.
How apt!
Hoons in a Monaro! Don’t see them around much any more.
Perhaps because an exQld walloper lost his mojo after crashing his one with flashing blue lights & wailing siren?
Took invalidity discharge as no longer fit to drive an official vehicle and receive a tin of CHUM instead of a gimcrack, 2bob watch.
Just guessin’…
What about the Petrov Royal Commission? The brain-child of that old fraud, Pig Iron Bob, it won him an election he looked like losing.However, when all the hullabaloo died down and the Commission released its findings, no spy ring, no widespread arrests of Australian traitors, in fact, a giant fizzer.However, it scared the pants off enough Australian voters, ( who have the mental capacity of a newt on Saturn),to allow the old rogue to remain in power until 1963 and go down in the history books as a “great” prime minister.
It’s very strange that Morrison attacks China for not being more critical of Russia, and Putin, but was deathly silent about India’s refusal to support the Quad’s resolution on Ukraine. India has much closer ties to Russia than China. Of course Morrison would never risk upsetting the large Indian/Australian voting population by making any criticism of the Indian government – who, quite rightly, would simply tell Morrison to keep his nose out of their affairs.
Shanghai Sam? Never a word of criticism about Gladys Lui and the massive amont on cash she shovelled into the Liberal coffers. Where did that all come from?
Election campaign due, behind in the polls, this present Coalition frenetic ‘clutching at strawmen’ campaign is just a “Shanghai Sham”.