The conservative budget is a series of half-truths that can be repeated and which requires a series of clarifications before the full truth of the matter can see the light of day. Outside of the pre-scheduled corporate tax cuts the reality is that the most recent federal budget is a do nothing and claims a lot budget. It was designed to be put in bullet form on a campaign pamphlet.
Above all though, it is a communications strategy designed to waste the oppositions’ precious messaging time clarifying the reality of the budget. This is a familiar strategy: bog-down the opposition in details while wasting their relatively precious resources. Attack adds work because they do the same thing. Those being attacked have to defend and defence takes a lot of energy.
From an optics point of view it looks terrible to not defend yourself and it looks weak to always be on the defensive. It looks terrible to not point out the half truth and it looks nit picky to go into the details.
In a way the conservative’s communications strategy is a hybrid strategy. It matches the tactics of a military which enjoys overwhelming superiority of force with the guerilla tactics of the weak.
None of the opposition parties seem to have figured out how to counter this strategy.
Relentlessly Progressive Political Economy 