Politics: The Killing Moon.

Unfortunately for everyone who still harbours murderous desires towards the ideologies of Howard and his compadres, the incendiary passions that were ignited before October 9^th seem to be fizzling out. People – bar Labor members - are forgetting how angry the election result made them, and they’re getting on with their everyday business. Just as John Howard himself seems keen on doing.

At the time of writing, Howard is in Indonesia, shaking hands and smiling his goofy smile in photo opportunities with President-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Whilst he’s in the throes international relations in South East Asia, the Labor party continues to predictably crumble.

Lindsay Tanner, Labor’s communication spokesman, is the latest to move from the shadow cabinet to the shadows of the backbench. Tanner is the latest in a series of frontbench deserters who have cited uncertainty with the direction the party is going. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the brutal machinations of the Labor knows there’s no doubt more to the story. Whenever Labor heads roll – and they often do – you can be sure that the axe came down as a result of embarrassing in-fighting.

Labor suffers from these problems after every election loss. It suffers because it is a party perpetually trying to find an equilibrium between its traditional working-class ethos and its aspiration-loving new school. It is also a party trying to find a way to successfully incorporate its union heritage into the demanding global economics of 2005. Unlike the Liberals – who can always rely on strong economic management mixed with a little bit of ‘traditional values’ and xenophobia – Labor is always trying to come to terms with what the party is and what it should become.

The Labor party will still be reeling from its loss in a year. They must now rely on savvy frontbenchers like Kevin Rudd, Stephen Smith and Julia Gillard to remain confident and ride out the ugly times.

Until those ugly times cease, the Labor party may just have to rely on that anonymous graffiti writer delivering on his maniacal promise.

(Originally published in The Brag in the Fear & Loathing column. I've since been informed that the graffiti writer in question is in fact a woman).