To cut to the chase, as Miranda Devine does with alacrity in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, the debate over the treatment of terrorist suspect Jack Thomas is

… a proxy for the biggest point of difference between Australians — between the inner-urban “elites”, the academic/legal/media classes, and the rest of Australia — suburbanites, the working classes, and country people … It is between those who believe the rule of law trumps all, and those who believe the law is servant, not master … It is the same debate about discipline in schools, about lax parenting, about tougher penalties for criminals, about immigration detention, about whether or not there is a war on terrorism, about whether events of September 11, 2001, were “understandable”, as some believe.

The division between the left-wing Elites and the Rest may have become an underpinning feature of the debate about issues in Australia, but what Miranda Devine doesn’t mention is the role of a third group — her own group — the suburban right-wing politicians and commentators who spend so much of their time talking up the division between the Left and the Rest.

Could that be because in any red-blooded political debate it’s always invaluable to produce a scapegoat to blame for the problem — and the “inner-urban elites” fit the bill perfectly?