Thought for the day, 21 January 2023
My unease is with so many other people's ease.
It's not that I have a problem with either of these men - or more than I would with any other leader of their respective parties. I'm grumpy: guilty as charged.
My problem is with the upbeat sense that order has been restored after that aberration, those few years with the lady. The one who was too pretty as she was not pretty enough; too flaky for the job, even as she was too conniving.
There's more than one reason she left, for sure. But now our egalitarian nation, the land of the fair go - of underdogs and battlers and mates - is somehow pretending we didn't help hound our highest leader out with our misogyny. That rape threats happen to everyone, and if the ladies are gonna get precious about it, well, it only shows they were never cut out for the job.
Being the PM is hard, and you've got to have the right stuff. Just ask anyone who's never done it.
Our daughters of all political stripes, when they step up to lead, when their own rape threats roll in, might one day ask us why we tolerated it. I'm not sure how we'll respond. Maybe we won't. It's a long weekend and the weather is good, so let's get the barbecue out.
Order has been restored.
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