How Original *eye roll*

November 4, 2009 in Leftys and Liberals
Tags: John Howard, lefty, liberal, political activism, politics, shoe throw

So a Cambridge student decided to throw his Doc Martins at our former PM

For my  ignorant American readers, John Howard was the conservative leader of the centre-right Liberal (misnomer) party, and good friend of George Bush during his term. Although much smarter than Bush, his electoral success in the last 10 years somewhat mirrored that of the Republic party’s ability to capture a disaffected middle America who felt alienated by an elitist left – we called them ‘Howard Battlers’.

The article is light on details, so I will attempt to fill in the blanks based on what we know:

He took off his Doc Marten boot and attempted to throw it at the former head of government.Senior union members managed to intercept the boot and the man was escorted out.

i.e. Scrawny, unathletic herb with insufficient upper body strength to throw a shoe across a room.

…the man yelled: “I was ashamed to be an Australian for that entire time, racist.”

I’m guessing politically active white student who excelled in bullshit humanities courses to secure a semester exchange to Cambridge. An Australian on a Cambridge scholarship wouldn’t do something so stupid or reckless with that much on the line. Despite the stunt, he’ll probably still get course credit for the semester there and something to brag about when he comes back next year.

Mr Howard was preparing to speak to an audience of 400 at the Cambridge Union Society on the “leadership in the new century” last Friday when a student verbally abused him and accused him of being racist.

So Howard’s talk had nothing to do with racial/national issues. He wasn’t talking about his policy positions on Indigenous Australians, asylum seekers, the Iraq war, border protection or immigration.  The outburst was out of context – a desperate search for any bit of social posturing he could get his hands on. The fact is that calling Howard a racist is grasping at straws. It’s kind of like conservative hacks calling Obama a Marxist. Sure, the argument is there, but you only look like a shrill little pansy when you make it. I’d love to read his gender studies social deconstruction essays when he concludes, ‘and therefore, that is why the the dominance of the Windows operating system in the 1990’s represented an unjust and shameful oppression of female freedom and suffrage.’