There’s no greater indictment of elections as a component of democracy than Peter Dutton and his team being…

There’s no greater indictment of elections as a component of democracy than Peter Dutton and his team being viable in the next election. Booted out just a few years ago after a decade of destructive inaction. Elections are not about material realities. They’re team sports. /1

Dutton is following a global conservative playbook, again. Start fights. Lots of fights. Have no policies, just fights. That fires up the teams. I saw another offshore wind farm approved but significantly diminished by these fights yesterday. /2 https://t.co/uHoRmP11Xz

The energy system was of zero interest to communities growing up. I live in an electorate with significant coal-fired electricity generation. Nobody paid it the slightest bit of attention, most of my life. Until fight politics turned it into fodder for team sports. /3

Now half the people I know foam at the mouth on social media every day with their newfound expertise in energy engineering. Manifested as mindlessly repeated slogans from the main fight promoters in the LNP. /4

Is there a single policy the LNP is taking to the next election? It all looks just like a series of picked-fights to me. Slogans. Enough to fire up the voters, who are all addicted to team sports. People love their footy. Fight politics makes governance into footy. /5

This is what populism produces. Anything is fair game, provided it generates votes. If you put popularity at the centre of your governance system, your society is dead. It’s only a matter of time. If urgent things were popular things, we’d already be doing them. /end