WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get. A computer term for editing software that shows on screen what the final output will be.
WYSIWYG is not an attribute commonly applied to politicians who rate somewhere below real estate agents and used car salesmen on the authenticity scale. That said there have been some pollies whose personas shone through - Bob Hawke, the silver bodgie who wore his heart on his sleeve; PJ Keating the Bankstown Bovver Boy who'd readily call a spade a fucking shovel; Tony The Wrecker Abbott, wall puncher, uncompromising zero-sum gamer and destroyer whose ideology was a flashing neon-sign pointing back to the 1950s.
What about our current accidental PM? Despite his high-profile roles as Immigration Minister thence Treasurer and now PM the polls show that most people don't know him. Which I think suits our twice-sacked ex-ad man - he's shown a propensity for customising an image that suits his agenda at the time, from asylum-denying hardman to self-righteous, hectoring Shoutyman to then applying his self-assigned risible ScoMo nickname (smug smirk included) to the fabricated baseball-capped, beer kneckin', pie gobbin' goofy dad to the public Jesus-praising man of god through to sheep-shearing, tractor-mounting hay tosser. His shape-shifting is more revealing than he knows. He's revealing himself as devious and manipulative. I doubt that Scummo has ever heard of Jean Giraudoux, the French diplomat, dramatist, and novelist but he is most certainly a practitioner of Giraudoux's famous line "the secret of success is sincerity; once you can fake that you've got it made."
Avoidance of scrutiny - somewhat ironic given ScumMo's claims to WYSIWYG: "A vote for Labor is a vote for Bill Shorten, a vote for the Liberals is a vote for me" - one of the most disingenuous claims of the campaign seeking to underline an authenticity that is entirely missing - a feint designed to cover the quick change artist that is Scott Morrison.
Scotty and the L/NP hate scrutiny and accountability unless it's only applied to the other side - proroguing Parliament, sand-bagging a Royal Commission into the banks, kicking the idea of a federal integrity commission into the long grass, handing out billions without due process or with the taint of corruption (GBRF, HelloWorld, On Water Matters, water buy-backs, refusal to co-operate with the AFP on the AWU's law case, attacks on GetUp, censoring the private opinions of public servants...). A return to power of these secretive schemers will be a green light to further shut down our right to know and encourage further nod-and-wink largesse with their pals because the public has demonstrated a tolerance for it by voting them back.
Nobbling of dissent - the creation of a super-Ministry of militarised spooks, enforcers, door-breakers and dark-uniformed goons overseen by a despotic sociopath was a clear indication of the autocratic tendencies of a government that seeks to control rather than to serve its citizens. They see themselves as our born-to-rule masters not our employees. Sheep-shearing goofy dad Scummo can readily transfom back into his real self - a dictatorial, evangelical crusader for his Jesus, the god-favours-the-rich Ayn Rand version.
If the Libs are returned we will see further privatisations to dumb-down a non-partisan public service so that they can hand service revenues to fellow-travelling profiteers, thereby by-passing dissent and frightening the remaining decimated public employees into mute, unquestioning obedience.
They will continue to load the bureaucracy with partisan hacks who will simply "follow orders" - the traditional frank and fearless advice being entirely dispensible for their purposes.
Whistleblowers will be persecuted, ala Witness K, an ex-spy who spilled the beans on ASIS spying on the East Timorese cabinet during negotiations over an oil and gas treaty at the behest of Lord Fishnets Downer. Witness K faces a prosecution where he is not permitted access to the evidence against him, to be be held in secret and where he may not even be able to attend to defend himself. Justice in Australia in the 21st century?
This is a government with no reservations about openly sledging school students demonstrating against the refusal to address climate change. They'll happily pick on kids, brown or white, if they dare show defiance to a know-your-place orthodoxy.
Returning the L/NP to government endorses their bullying and their deceit and that is exactly how they will read it.
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Avoidance of scrutiny and the quashing of dissent are just two of the issues to be faced in the coming election but they are two that are fundamental to the funtioning of our democracy. Over-egging the omelette you say? Donald Trump i reply. A little over two years ago who would've thought that an orange-tinged, ex-gameshow host, gibbering sex pest and multiple bankrupt could be POTUS and drag the US into hyper-partisan degredation, formalised magnate-toadying and legalised environmental destruction while cosying up to murderous despots, insulting staunch allies and demonising a free press.
ScoMo, rightfully derided as Scummo, ProMo, SlowMo but no more aptly than as FauxMo, is the LN/P face of this current campaign. Scummo may be no Trump - but look at his henchmen (very few women) - they more than match the US's GOP in nastiness. Scummo is their representative, figurehead and spokesman.
Smirkin' Scotty has been left to do all of the running - fortified by the support of his chosen brand of Jesus, bolstered by hubris, secure in his smug self-regard he's taken up the challenge. But he had little choice regardless. With much of his front-bench exited through the outdoor, two ex-Prime Ministers unsuitable for public display, an intoxicated idiot of an ex-deputy locked in a Tamworth cupboard while his Mogadon-infused replacement is too stupified with inertia and too unchallenged by charisma or imagination to do other than play the role of noddy-in-chief.
Kathy Wilcox. SMH
But Scotty is a suitable front man and personification of his party. We've had six years of chaos, incompetence, bitter in-fighting, 3 prime ministers, 4 treasurers, a debt double that of the one they so vociferously attacked. Hypocrisy, nastiness, conflict, double standards, devoid of ideas and policies and with a track record lacking any merit they are dependent on slurs and slogans - the party captured in the one person.
The real Scotty and the real L/NP will re-appear should they win this election. They will double down, claiming endorsement of all of the nastiness and ramping up the program of shovelling money to mates. The banks will be delighted, the miners will go nuts, the Murdoch propaganda machine's belief in their role as kingmakers will see them calling in further favours - additional defunding of the ABC to be chief amongst them no doubt.
The real Scotty tried to deny the families of drowned refugees the opportunity to attend their funerals. The real Scotty tried to formalise the demonising of Muslims as a key Lib strategy. The real Scotty dared not mention the c-word during the campaign but waved a lump of it in parliament. The real Scotty cut the pay of the lowest paid service workers. The real Scotty barracks for the Sharks; and the grifters, carpet baggers, rent-seekers and shonks. The real Scotty turns up to his prosperity-gospelling Horizon church each Sunday secure in the knowledge that his lord favours only those who comply with his own bizarre superstitions.
If this bloke is returned at the coming election it will re-inforce his, and the Lib's appalling behaviour, just as Abbott's negativity emboldened the Lib's regressive instincts after 2013. If you vote Liberal at the coming election that means you endorse all of that. WYSIWYG - the camouflage and distractions do not hide Morrison's inherent repugnance nor that of his party.