Tweedledee Essay Research Paper In defining the

Tweedledee Essay, Research Paper

In defining the analogy of Tweedledum to Tweedledee with that of the major political parties we must look at their relationship with each other. They are similar, foolish, stubborn and argue for augments sake. The analogy of Tweedledum and Tweedledee does hold true for our major parties. To the general public the major parties appear to procrastinate and achieve little in policy making due to arguing on issues for the sake of arguing instead of compromising . No longer are ideologies on different spectrums on the scale as they used to be. Labour has become more conservative from its socialist origins and now many of the Australian Labour Party complain that they see their own party overturning traditional Labour policy. This essay will seek to show how the traits of Tweedledum and Tweedledee are quite prominent in today’s major political parties.

The Australian Labour party has moved away from its traditional socialist ideology to a more conservative ideology. The “ALP has tempered its reformist blade into a dull, metallic mirror of its opponents traditional policies.” Bob Hawke’s government embraced, “some of the most cherished polices of its opponents”, by deregulating financial markets, floating the Australian dollar and promoting private investment by “undertaking to deliver tight wages policy and increased profit margins for businesses”. The National party is similar to the labour party in that their individualism differs only slightly “from the socialism they once decried in the Labour party”. This statement is based on Labours original ideology on ” working conditions for employees reformed, social welfare and reform of the economy to eliminate exploitation” and the National party’s want of government to provide the services of health and education, “which will contribute to happiness for the family and opportunities for self advancement for the individual”. The Liberal party too is similar to the Labour party, in that, “there is no stark division as between black and white”. “Both major opposing parties being aggregative, absorb imitations of each others position; we can quite legitimately talk of the conservative wing of the Labour party or the progressives of the Liberal party”. Therefore the general public would see these parties as being similar but also contradicting each other thus a parallel can be seen between the major political parties and to Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Furthermore, in each political party there are factions. This leads to the next trait of the Tweedledum and Tweedledee analogy in that the party has internal conflict and is foolish for doing so. An illustration of this occurred in November 1983 when the Labour federal corcous voted 55 to 43 against their policy of antiuranium mining and approved a mining operation to

start at Roxby Downs in South Australia. The Labour right formed industrial groups to combat the Labour left trade unionism and a split accured and the formation of the Democratic Labour party occurred in the 1950’s. This cast the labour party dearly as they were not in government again until 15 years later. The Liberal party has had a similar near falling out with the National party recently. The ‘Nationals’ are threatening to withdraw from the coalition due to their internal conflicting ideas on policies and their dwindling support in the country. Most recently in the New South Wales state election, due to internal bickering between the ‘wets’ and the ‘dries’ and a change in leadership on the eve of an election the coalition was savagely defeated in a landslide. The examples above show how it is possible that major political parties can make the Tweedledum and Tweedledee analogy true.

Another comparison to Tweedledum and Tweedledee on the major political parties is that the public may view both of what they say and what they do as contradicting, confusing drivel and arguing for the sake of contradicting eachother. This could account for the disillusionment of the rural community coinciding with the rise of the One Nation Party, Australian Democrats and an increase of Independents in rural areas being elected. An example of this was shown on the ‘Today’show, a breakfast current affairs program, on the 20th April. It showed a lady residing in Melbourne who is in the process of being prosecuted for not voting. She argues, “there is none worth voting for”. Her belief which could also be generally assumed as a common belief is that politicians are untrustworthy and self representing. It could be argued that a vote for a politician in a major political party would be a vote for Tweedledum and Tweedledee, which is absurd.

It is plausible to say that Tweedledum and Tweedledee analogy does not hold true for Australia’s major political parties on the thereoy that the major parties genuinely represent their electorate and not themselves or their faction of a party and that it appears to the public that little is achieved only because the public elected a non-working majority in both houses and thus giving the impression that procrastination is the only thing that is achieved. An example of this is the delicate balance of power in the federal senate, with two independent senators stalling and amending bills acts if passed are very slow to be passed. In this instance it is not the major parties fault for delaying of policies and that the Tweedledum and Tweedledee impression of constant pointless squabbling is not justified

In conclusion, it is fair to compare Tweedledum and Tweedledee to the major political parties because the public sees them as being; stubborn, foolish, and procrastinators.