The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan has elected former prime minister Abe Shinzo as its new leader.
This is a disaster for the party and for the country. The party of the stupid has elected a leader with history of failure in elections and a mental breakdown during his time as prime minister. He represents the most australopithecine of party's thinking. He will head out into hustings with much of the local party apparatus unenthusiastic if not openly hostile to his leadership, Ishiba Shigeru having won over half the local chapter vote in the five-way first round.
If there were any doubt that the LDP is thinking of a post-House of Representatives coalition of moderation with the Democratic Party of Japan, that scenario has just died. The LDP sees Hashimoto Toru's likely volatile Japan Restoration Party as its new partner in a ruling coalition driving Japan toward a radical dismantling of the post-1945 state.
Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko and the secretariat of the Democratic Party of Japan must be struggling to not leap out of their chairs, thinking, "This guy...this guy we can beat."
For the good of this blessed land, they had better succeed in doing just that.
You sound angry…. I’m surprised that Abe-san made it through, but what do I know, the inner workings of the LDP factions are still a mystery to me. But we’re heading into interesting times… I somehow doubt they’ve chose the winning horse. As for the DPJ, they better remain seated and start working. Hard.
ReplyDeleteps - my first reaction was, ‘wtf, what do they put in the water at the LDP headquarters?’
pps - I was also surprised at low vote count for Ishihara-san Jr from the local chapters. But perhaps I underestimate the weight of the rural constituencies in the total. I see him mostly as representative for the urban middle class (or a fraction of it).
Philippe -
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how one derives a sense of anger from the post. I will have to reread it carefully.
I would like the DPJ to work hard as well. The reality, however, is that no matter how hard they work, the current political alignment in the House of Councillors stymies the passage of anything but the budget.
I too foresaw a better outcome for Ishihara. I am not sure whether or not the difference is urban vs. rural. Cearly did something or did not do some things as secretary-general which really ticked off the local chapters. One possibility was that he was too nice, not enforcing the replacement of sitting local chapter administrations with ones loyal to him.