Tea Party Australia

As an outsider looking in, I guess you can say the Tea Party is alive and well in Australia.

During the fight over the carbon tax in Australia, Opposition Leader, Tea Party Tony Abbott, said the enactment of a carbon tax was socialism.   During the fight over the Affordable Care Act, the Tea Party and its Republican allies said it was socialism.  Taxes = socialism = bad.  Corporate welfare = capitalism = good.

Tea Party Tony and the rest of the LNP Opposition have done nothing but be the Party of NO.  It seems that if Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Labor are for it, the Tea Party LNP are automatically against it.

Of course to be truly Tea Party, you have to have the Slaughter of the Moderates.  That requires making sure moderates in the conservative party are denied renomination.  One could argue the Slaughter of the Moderates began when Tea Party Tony defeated Malcolm Turnbull for leader of the LNP.  Turnbull had supported the Labor Government's climate change proposal. 

We have that slaughter taking place in Canberra.  Moderate LNP Senator Gary Humphries looks to become the Bob Bennett in Australia.   Flashback...Sen. Bennett (R-UT) was one of the early casualties of the Tea Party movement.  Although reliably conservative, he was caught off-guard and defeated for re-election.  Looks like Humphries is pulling a Bennett.  Humphries has been caught napping and will likely be replaced by a much more ideological and conservative replacement.

God help Australia if Tea Party Tony and his brand of LNP conservatism get to be in power.