Democracy weakened by charade

Miranda Devine, SMH:

Progressives really believe that by willing something into being, by talking it up and writing about it and employing their combined brilliance they can somehow engineer a mass change in social sentiment. It is a core belief. But more and more the arguments run away from them.

They can belittle and shun people who refuse to accept the genius of their world view but they just make their enemies stronger because all the energy they expend on maintaining the charade that they represent the reasonable middle ground means they fail competently to perform their day jobs - say, running a democratic country.

All true. KRudd tried hard to maintain a nationalist facade, but couldn't hide his open-borders agenda. The focus groups went ballistic when he declared his love for a big Australia. It was all downhill from there. The danger now, though, is that Gillard is becoming the facade that Rudd couldn't maintain. The prospect of Rudd as Foreign Minister pursuing his open-borders Asia-Pacific Union, whilst Gillard maintains the facade of nationalism, is nauseating.