Hey, maybe he does. I’ve not discussed it with him. But in this case, the only thing he has been after is to capitalise on a surge of support from remote central Australian communities for coalition representation and he wants one of their own in federal parliament as a Liberal member.

I realise such sentiments are a bit simple for people with PHDs in postmodernism but most “sympathetic commentators” get it.

you’re still missing the point about the word ‘authentic’. If the candidate was an aboriginal academic from charles darwin university up north, who had one aboriginal and one white parent, a phd in postmodernism, and regular trips to conferences abroad, but with a continuing connection to family, mob, nation - and a strong opposition to the coalition’s policies - do you think abbott would regard this candidate as ‘authentic’? Of course he wouldn’t. He wants a certain type of person - who embodies both the ‘noble savage’ myth, but also subscribes to an individualist and assimiliationist worldview, and ideally with two aboriginal parents.

If Abbott simply wants more indigenous reps from central australia - something we can all agree on - why not just leave out the adjective? You want to include it, but not give it any meaning. You’re reproducing abbott’s process.

GR, you make a clear point about the apparent contradictions of a the centre right. It has always intrigued me how one holds the two contradictory ideas of encouraging free-range economics while maintaining barn-fed social attitudes, if I may slip into farming vernacular.

Surely this is the underlying problem for the right, how can unregulated business sit alongside highly regulated social behaviours as an ideology. It has always carried this weakness, that it is inherently unstable and hypocritical.

The result seems to be that psychological denial is a pre-requisite to maintain the two ideas concurrently without internal conflict, and consequently they are then blind to all other internal inconsistencies, such as ‘how come dem wimmin is getting all uppitty these days’ and ‘holy smokes, now dey’s wants to control deir own bodies, WTF’.

The women conundrum, the indigenous conundrum, are both a result of the inherent hypocrisy of the underlying philosophy.

I can understand how such a philosophy could have surfaced in one particular country due to unusual circumstances, but how is it that this ieal is actually the template for seemingly all the movements of the right?

It don’t add up!

Are you really so deaf that you can’t hear the dog whistling? Even while convicted racist and Abbott booster Andrew Bolt continues his desperate revisionism to justify his lies about ‘inauthentic’ pale-skinned aborigines choosing to ‘boost’ their careers…

Next you’ll be arguing that Tony ‘a woman’s greatest gift is her virginity’ Abbott is a misunderstood feminist!

Though I accept that Abbott is somewhat unreconstructed, all he wanted was an aboriginal who authentically represented Central Australian communities. You wouldn’t know it reading Crikey.

Though I accept that Abbott is somewhat unreconstructed, all he wanted was an aboriginal who authentically represented Central Australian communities. You wouldn’t know it reading Crikey.

the problem lies not in the nouns, but in the adjective - ‘authentic’. and i explicitly didnt say that abbott was racist. If you read the article, you’ll see that i said that the ‘authentic’ idea was a hodgepodge of attitudes, some of which were ancient racist ideas, and that they were contradictory - and that that was how they retained their power. it’s not that abbott is racist, it’s that the mix of sentimentalism and neurosis that characterises modern conservatism needs racist ideas to give itself meaning.

@Guy: Where’s part 1? Does it contain more delicious analogies, like “Gina pumicing her corns?” I’f I’d been drinking, you’d have owed me a new keyboard.

Somehow in Crikey we now have the much more loaded and ra cist slur that Abbott is seeking an “authentic aborigine” which nicely continues the character assass ination campaign of the ALP. Keep up the good work, Guy. At this rate you’ll help get Austral ia another three years of the ALP.

Somehow in Crikey we now have the much more loaded and racist slur that Abbott is seeking an “authentic aborigine” which nicely continues the character assassination campaign of the ALP. Keep up the good work, Guy. At this rate you’ll help get Australia another three years of the ALP.

To break the losing habit, Republicans must resist the temptation to make excuses. We should dismiss the following thoughts from our minds: it was Hurricane Sandy’s fault; it was Chris Christie’s fault; the mainstream media gave Obama a pass on Benghazi; a Mormon can never be president; a private-equity guy can never be president; the Tea Party went too far; the Dems’ ground game was better in Ohio.

Then, his final point in a list of his diagnosis of why Romney lost, he gave an almost identical whinge as Romney (in fact I guess this pre-dated Mitt, perhaps even inspired Mitt?)

Finally, and most important, the Democrats have figured out what European Social Democrats long ago understood: the more entitlements you create, the more voters you can depend on. Let me put it very simply: given the choice between higher taxes on the 1 percent and cuts in entitlement for the 47 percent, voters went for the former. Surprise!