On the face of it, Josh Bornstein would seem to be an ideal fit for a Labor candidate: member of a progressive think tank, union lawyer, prolific and often vicious tweeter
But Bornstein’s bid for a Labor Senate spot is foundering between the Charybdis of Labor factional politics and the vicious Scylla of the feminist witch-hunt sweeping Canberra.
Twitter’s tagline is “Tell us what you really think”. Bornstein has been doing so, loudly and often, for years. Unfortunately for his fledgling political career, what he really thinks is raising eyebrows and hackles in the Labor party.
Would-be Labor senator Josh Bornstein attacked ALP frontbencher Chris Bowen as a “muppet” and lampooned the MP’s book on reforming the Labor Party.
Yeah, and…? Who doesn’t think Bowen is a muppet? Bowen is, after all, the bloke who famously told voters not to vote for Labor at the last election: advice Australians took in droves. Bowen is also conspicuously driving Labor’s climate policies, which party elder Joel Fitzgibbon warns will only continue to cost them elections.
But Bornstein’s real sin seems to be that he has crossed the real powerbrokers in Labor: the socialist left and the screeching fishwives trying to leverage the latest, confected gender outrage for their own benefit.
Labor powerbrokers are considering backing Mr Bornstein for the Senate to replace Kim Carr, who has for decades been at the forefront of the Victorian Socialist Left faction.
Mr Bornstein’s prolific activity on Twitter, where he has posted nearly 28,000 times, has raised deep concern within Labor about what will emerge next from the social media platform.
The Australian revealed on Wednesday that Mr Bornstein had apologised for likening a senior female unionist to a dog, locking horns in 2016 with two senior women unionists.
He also suggested that Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, would make “a very fine Morticia”, a reference to a character in the The Addams Family comedy.
Unlike the Liberals, Labor has never tolerated dissension from the party ranks. “Solidarity” has been its policy since its inception: meaning that MPs have to publicly fall in line or else.
And in the new gender paradigm of the left, women cannot ever, under any circumstances, be criticised. Above all, the poor little petals must absolutely never be subjected to the ordinary stresses of political argy-bargy.
Mr Bornstein apologised to former senior unionist Linda White after suggesting she was a dog who had misplaced her chew toy. In his 2016 tweet attacking her, he wrote Ms White had behaved like “a poodle snapping at my heels”.
So, are we going to see public apologies for every time John Howard was attacked as “America’s lapdog”? Or when Christopher Pyne was derided as a “mincing poodle”?
Actually, that one was funny and true.
Senator Wong responded on Wednesday: “Anyone seeking Labor preselection should understand they need to respect women in both word and deed.”
The Australian
Get the memo, Josh: men are fair game. Women are pure and untouchable.
Well, left-wing women, anyway. Conservative women, especially Christian women, like Senator Amanda Stoker, can still be vilified with impunity.
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