Sophie Mirabella doesn't deserve such universal hatred | Helen Razer

Liberal candidate Sophie Mirabella is boldfaced, unabashed and she is not sorry. And that's why you can't stand her

Look. I have no idea who Cathy McGowan is and, frankly, neither do you. We can probably be sure that the independent candidate for Indi has eaten no children, and was not the sole author of Mein Kampf . This absence of doubt about absolute evil should be enough to celebrate her as the “grassroots” campaigner. Go Cathy. Whoa Cathy. She’s a little battler who’ll usher good into the world.

I do, however, know who Sophie Mirabella is. And so, it seems, do you. Until the federal election last Saturday, she was a Coalition middleweight chiefly known for being (a) the executor of a rich man’s will and (b) the object of Hansard’s most peculiar insult. If you’ve forgotten, former MP Belinda Neal doubled-down on crazy to offer to a pregnant Mirabella: “your child will turn into a demon if you have such evil thoughts. You'll make your child a demon, you'll make your child a demon.” It was the best/worst thing ever, and could only have been improved if both parliamentarians were clad in tiger-print bikinis.

Despite what is – ‘fess up – a wretched lack of knowledge about both candidates' proposals for the seat of Indi, we have nonetheless attributed to one a Marian halo, and to the other the capacity for producing a demon baby.

But can Mirabella be so bad and vexing as your stupid Facebook groups and your idiot opinion pieces suggest? And if she is, as seems to be the consensus on the lazy-left, a warmongering succubus who reproduces hate with her devil-vulva, then where is the evidence?

Consigned to the backbench in government, Mirabella never really had the chance to do anything more offensive than be a member of a terrible party which ruined my nation. I will be among the first and most effusive flingers of poo at these monsters whose loathing for life has seen the dwindling of workplace rights and personal liberties but I will not earmark a particular turd for a woman yet to prove that she is as awful as, say, Kevin Andrews.

Cited often as a proof of her nastiness is an appearance on Q&A, wherein she failed to resuscitate the guy from GetUp. She should not be so harshly judged. First, I have appeared on Q&A (with Mirabella, in fact), and those lights are very bright and confusing. Honestly. Nothing in that studio seems real; least of all political conscience. Second, hey, if you thought you had half a chance to end clicktivism, what would you do? (Clearly, I jest. But I do hate GetUp.)

Beyond this television appearance, the chief reason for disliking Mirabella seems to be that she is just not very nice. Yes, it’s true that she appeared before those “ditch the witch” signs. But so did a whole lot of other guys. Yes, it’s true that she boycotted the national apology to Stolen Generations. But so did a whole lot of other guys. And, hey, while we’re at it, where’s the I Hate Jenny Macklin page on Facebook? Under her minister’s watch, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians widened and the Intervention abided. But I guess she went to the bother of looking sorry.

And Mirabella never did. She’s unapologetic. And that’s why you can’t stand her.

The reeking fetid evil of her party notwithstanding, Mirabella is not unusually vile. It is true that she does not bother to conceal her ignorance, but this does not make her worse than her fellows. Frankly, I’d rather the Quadrant-crowd outed themselves in all their bravura stupidity. If only John Howard had been a little more candid in his partiality to the “history” of Keith Windschuttle, for example, maybe we wouldn’t have had 11 years under him.

Mirabella is boldfaced and she is unabashed and she is not sorry and all of those other things we applaud in “feisty” ladies of the left. I put it to you anti-Mirabellists that you are less than equal opportunity in your enthusiastic hate.

Contributor

Helen Razer

The GuardianTramp

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