Kurt Tucker is a funny man. (Daily Telegraph, 28 March 2017)
The Young Nats leader and student rep at the University of Queensland this week said on Facebook that he was a political person so that if he had lived in 1930s Germany he would certainly have joined the Nazi Party as that was the only way to get ahead in public life in that milieu.
Odd thing to say in Australia in 2017: I am a political person so therefore I would have joined the Nazi Party. The two ideas don’t easily run together, but it is at least a fearless assertion of his true political colours which is refreshingly frank considering the likely reaction to such a statement – not least as the last 70-odd years have seen an unrelenting analysis, deconstruction and, above all, condemnation of that hideously barbaric regime.
Kurt Tucker, nevertheless is happy to associate himself with that regime because it would have been the only way to get ahead had he lived in a completely different time and place.
Makes sense.
Or at least it did. All hell broke loose when he was alerted to the fact, by his National Party and University colleagues, that he did not live in 1930s Germany. This may have come as a shock to Mr Tucker, but in fact he lives in Queensland in 2017, and modern Queensland has several differences with interbellum Germany – geologically, temporally and politically.
In response Mr Tucker announced that, on reflection, he would never have joined the Nazi Party which he regarded as totally abhorrent.
Really? So, if he actually had been an ambitious young politician in 1930s Germany, and offered a position as SS-Gruppenfuhrer within (say) Heinrich Himmler’s Gestapo with a nice office on Prinz Albrecht Strasse, Kurt would have looked Himmler in the monocle and said: ‘Thanks for the offer of a promising career within your organisation but I find your policies and practices abhorrent, so I must decline.’
Kurt Tucker is clearly a man of principle after all, and as a political animal there were plenty of other parties for him to join – some of them much less abhorrent than the Nazi Party although membership of other parties tended to get you incarcerated or killed.
So when did he decide the Nazi Party was abhorrent? Did he only learn that today? Or did he already know about the totalitarian fascists led by a genocidal maniac into its horrific crimes against humanity?
If he only learned it today then you could almost forgive his naivety in saying he would have joined. But he would have to have lived under the biggest rock in history to have only realised the truth today. That can only mean, therefore, that despite full knowledge of all Nazi atrocities, Kurt (a suspiciously German name) would happily have joined the Nazi Party.
And that is the end of Mr Tucker’s political career in modern Australia, although no doubt we’ll eventually see him as a One Nation candidate. They’ll take anyone who isn’t bankrupt (financially as opposed to morally).
But what this amusing episode underscores is the pathetic calibre of politician we put up with in this country. Mr Tucker went on to claim that 90% of the members of the current Liberal and Labor parties would also have joined the Nazi Party if that was the only way to get ahead, and he’s possibly right – although less than 1% of them would be stupid enough to say so on Facebook.
The sad reality is that most modern politicians are not interested in pursuing an agenda for its own sake. They are only interested in power. That’s what Kurt Tucker was openly proclaiming when he said he would have joined the party in power, irrespective of their policies.
And that is why Australians have lost interest in mainstream politicians and are looking towards the fringes for politicians who actually believe in something rather than moral vacuums who merely want to preside for their own self-aggrandisement.
What real difference is there between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party? They occasionally talk a different game, but they do the same things in power and there isn’t a struck match between them. They’re all so compromised by doing deals and all so beholden to lobby groups and promises of employment after politics that the system just grinds onward towards oblivion and no-one has the guts or gumption to do anything about it.
That’s why decent, talented people no longer join the mainstream parties. There is no vision or leadership to inspire them so only a moral vacuum would be remotely interested in joining – not to turn the country around but to leech the last of its lifeblood before the whole thing finally goes belly up.
So now, those of us with any sort of hope left look to the fringes for someone with guts and gumption to try and do something before it’s too late. The fringes do contain some passionate individuals who could make a useful contribution to our polity, but the fringes are also full of wacko fruit bats eyeing the last few scraps in the political trough and shouting: ‘Me too!’ How do we know who’s genuine and who’s going to turn into a maniac as soon as they’re elected?
Fortunately, one maniac at least has now put his hand up to give us early warning to stay clear. Mind you, Hitler did that also with the Beer Hall Putsch and the publication of Mein Kampf.
Didn’t stop him getting elected.
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