Tony Abbot once referred to himself in terms of not wanting to be the best politician to never be Prime Minister. He wanted to be Prime Minister so bad. As a political entity, he was whatever he wanted to be, in order to maximise each situation, and so rarely made any comment that wasn’t in its way designed to work. The thing that ties to all of his gaffes and weirdness, it was simply because the man thought he could get away with it.
I’ve dealt with the high school bully and I’ve dealt with the private school bully. Tony Abbott is a man who has no idea how to interact with people he can’t lean on, but who lacks the raw bareknuckle aggression of a bully who actually had to punch someone himself.
Now he’s been replaced by a guy who is… well, really, not much better? Like it’s still the Liberal Party. It’s still a party that got elected on the basis of Stopping the Boats, Fucking The Poor, and Destroying Our Legacies. But at least now the person in charge might be an adult.
I am going to enjoy this little dish of spite, for now.