How to move to the left, whilst standing still

It is probably a good indication of just how far to the Right the ruling Australian Liberal Party has moved when I hear a radio interview with a member of their junior coalition partner, the National Party, in which he says that these days the Nationals, which has its major constiuency amongst regional & rural Australia, are a force for moderation.

When I first came to Australia thirty-five years ago, the Nationals, then called the Country Party, were less liberal, more conservative, than their senior Coalition partner. But in the years since, or at least in the last fifteen of them, the Liberals have moved further & further to the Right, & so it is true to say that the Nationals, who haven’t moved at all, are now the more liberal, less conservative party, & probably do have some moderating influence.

But. The crypto-fascists fundamentalists Liberal Party are now so deeply entrenched in power because of the lack of a strong opposition party that they could almost govern on their own. Which is what the Nationals are afraid of. So, because the need for power, or at least a portion of it, over-rules everything, they still go along – most of the time – maintaining the coalition, upholding its rightist, righteous stance.