Do Liberals still identify as conservative? And what does that even mean any more?

In April, US right-wing broadcaster-turned-influencer Tucker Carlson was invited onto his podcast Matt WalshA commentator and podcaster from the right-wing manosphere who campaigns specifically against trans rights. Chatting with Carlson, Walsh said “the definition of conservatism… I guess there’s no definition of it.”

Walsh said “conservatism” is a word that no longer means anything because it has been “used, abused and overused.”

“When you tell me someone is a conservative, that doesn’t tell me much about that person,” he told Carlson. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Carlson went one step further. Labeling someone as a conservative “usually means I won’t like them,” he said. “They’re going to be some kind of online scam… that’s my gut reaction, that word has become so discredited.”

Conservatism as a term and a tradition has become confusing. In the United States, it is no longer associated with the Republican Party.

In the UK, support for the once-great Conservative Party has been eviscerated by the angry populists of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which has 27 per cent voter support (According to the latest YouGov poll conducted last week). The Conservative Party (and the governing Labor Party) came in a distant second with 17 percent of the vote.

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In the Australian context, the Liberal Party, the traditional home of our conservatives, also seems confused about what conservatism means. Or maybe it’s something a little different; Members of the Liberal Party are perfectly comfortable with their conservative identity, but they cannot explain to the voting public what it means and why we should support it in a contemporary context.

As Victorian Liberal Senator Jane Hume noted Herald and Age‘s Inside Politics podcast this weekLabor is good at celebrating its historical heroes, even those of mixed heritage. The final commemorations of the expulsion in 1975 are a good example.

As Troy Bramston launches his Gough Whitlam biography, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praises Whitlam’s reform legacy Without identifying the contemporary ALP too closely with the numerous failures of the Whitlam government.

Liberals appear less comfortable explaining what traditional Australian conservative values ​​mean in a contemporary context. Homeownership seems to be the low hanging fruit, especially for young people. The importance of home ownership is the foundation of conservatism. It brings financial and psychological security, which provides stability in starting a family.

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The plot is a direct link to Robert Menzies, a totemic part of him. Australian DreamIt’s a problem that the Albanian government has not only failed to solve, but has probably made it worse.

One idea that could catch voters’ attention: the Liberal Party could easily heckle Labor with a proposal to roll back negative incentive benefits for property investors who take advantage of them for multiple properties. But no one in the Liberal partyroom seems brave enough to attempt anything so sensible.

The Liberal party room looks set to oust leader Sussan Ley sooner, if not sooner. Again, no one in the party room has enough imagination or enough team spirit to borrow from one of conservatism’s greatest heroes to support Ley’s position.

Margaret Thatcher disdained sexism and snobbery to become the titan of the Conservative Party. She made a virtue of her gender, deliberately positioning herself as a solid, sensible, sensible woman who was here to clean up the economic and social messes of 1970s Britain.

As biographer Charles Moore notes: “He was fond of saying: Roosters crow but chickens lay eggs; that chicken.

Thatcher allowed aging industries, namely coal mining, to fail (and largely ignored the resulting human suffering); identified the threat of global warming and pushed Britain towards multiple sources of energy, including renewables. It reflected power.

Think about how much President Trump would want to be known as “Iron Man.” By anyone.

Thatcher has many critics, and for good reason. But he knew what was happening, and so did the voters.

Until the Liberal party room figures out what conservatism means to itself and how to communicate that to the Australian public, it will struggle to do much more than casually tackle populism.

Or worse, give in to it.

Jacqueline Maley is a columnist and author.