Goodbye Liberal Party

You, the Liberal Party, are in free fall following the forced resignation of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. You have gone from 49.5% to 44% in two weeks and have just lost a NSW by-election with an astonishing 28% drop in first preference vote.

You are on the nose and even my support, which dates back forty-seven years, has finally evaporated.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which no longer resembles the party of which I was once an active member, office bearer and staunch campaigner (1971 to 1986).

I cannot support a Liberal Party which has forgotten its own guiding principles and whose dwindling party base is so out of touch with modern society.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which has become so dominated by aggressive, quarrelsome and uncompromising ultra-conservatives.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which panders to extremism and features militant hard-liners like Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton, Kevin Andrews and Eric Abetz.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which continues to be wracked with simmering internal warfare.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which allows itself to be owned by mega-mouth media celebrities like Jones, Hadley and Bolt.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which, for ten years, opposed and destroyed proactive measures against carbon emissions - one of the biggest threats our civilisation has to face.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which does not demand tough compliance from religious institutions regarding child abuse. 

I cannot support a Liberal Party which believes in "minimised interference in our daily lives" but tried to tell people who to marry.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which permitted bullying and interference with the rights of its own parliamentarians to a secret vote and allowed factional bosses to demand to be shown party room private ballot papers.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which promotes religious exemptions from anti-discrimination laws.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which has a problem with women and a problem with gays.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which ignores its own basic principle of "equal opportunity for all Australians".

I cannot support a Liberal Party which, despite promoting multiculturalism, has a problem with secularism and puts narrow religious affiliations ahead of the common good.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which viciously destroyed Malcolm Turnbull, and afterwards could provide no reason for doing so.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which dumped its own Prime Minister, who had governed well and was in a good position to win the next election.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which, despite a small parliamentary majority put personal agendas and revenge ahead of party unity.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which allows a maverick ex-Prime Minister to "wreck, undermine and snipe" without discipline, sanction or even admonishment.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which dabbled with electing as Prime Minister a man who's eligibility to sit in Parliament was in doubt at the time.

I cannot support a Liberal Party whose Pentecostal leader seems unlikely to govern for all Australians.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which locks asylum seekers up for years.

I cannot support a Liberal Party which abandons the middle ground. 

There's probably more........

I've voted for you at every State and Federal election since 1971, with only one exception.

I have liberal principles and you've abandoned yours.

Goodbye!