How did we get here? How do we get out? Though tolerant and generous conservatism lies at the centre of Australian life, the big lie is that it is Leftism which sits in the calm, logical, peaceful centre of things. The lie, taught by the illiberal Left, teaches that conservatism is a dissident, angry and illegitimate force which must be either ignored or silenced. In this strange fantasy, criticising the Left is depicted as shrill, ill-natured and even bad mannered—they don’t like not being loved. The elite Left media consistently undermine popular conservative politicians by representing them as outsiders, with…