Everything is tense as I get into the car. None of us can believe it. ‘What’s the latest?’ I ask. ‘We don’t know,’ they reply. The car full of Liberal students traverses the city, to a home where there is Sky News. We cram into the living room at 8.45pm, half an hour before the ballot, with our textbooks and takeaway pizza. One of us is still wearing a #VoteLiberal tee-shirt from the day of SRC campaigning at university. The commentary is sickening to watch. Peter Van Onselen can barely contain his glee at Turnbull’s momentum. Grahame Richardson treats it with cold practicality, as if replacing the face of our country isn’t in any way gut-wrenching. The worst however is Paul Murray, an Abbott loyalist. Although he bravely attempts to hide it, the man is shattered. The passion that normally gives fire to his words, seems to have died. It’s while watching Paul Murray that our room full of Liberal students quietly realise it’s over. Then the anger begins.

The anger of the Liberal base at what has occurred will be unparalleled. Everyone starts yelling at the TV. The Liberals were set apart from Labor because they were unified and civilised. Their attention was on big ideas for the country, not fickle polling numbers. The Liberals had the weight of competence and policy that made them unafraid of accountability. The Liberals did not fear the electorate. Or so we thought.We know the rage and disbelief we feel is happening in other living rooms across the country. All of us are on our phones to everyone we know, trying to make sense of how it has come to this. The whole debacle has been unforseen because, outside the chatter of hack circles, there’s been no obvious need for such a seismic change.

Our room is silent when the ballot comes out. Turnbull wins by ten votes and just like that, the Liberals have passed the point of no return. Once a party has chosen to unseat a Prime Minister, it’s a stain on the party’s history that can never be undone. Such an act disregards a party’s base and changes the leadership of the country without any say from the public; it feeds disillusionment and disengagement like no other. What’s worse is that this is the third successful leadership assassination in six years. This is the new normal, where all political parties are the same. The young Liberals look at each other, shocked; we are now just like the Labor Party. Turnbull has sold himself and his communication skills to his party, appealing to their fear of the polls. Self-interest of many was the catalyst for this change. Turnbull is there to be popular and to please people who will never vote for him. This will be the Q&A Prime Ministership.

But the hardest thing for young political minds to watch is the way senior political figures desert their leaders when the going gets tough. Politics should be a battle of ideas, a long hard slog, where the best politicians are the ones that stick to their convictions. Now it seems, the best politicians are strategists and media experts. It’s a triumph of surface over substance. There is no reward for bravery or loyalty. The culture of the entire party has been uprooted by allowing Abbott’s political assassination and installing a man who will turn the party in a very different direction (no prizes for guessing which direction). The future for issues like climate change, gay marriage and the republic are anyone’s guess. As the Sky News commentary continued and the grins of Turnbull supporters swelled, we wondered where our future would lead. Does being aspirational in politics mean learning how to stage coups? Watching Malcolm Turnbull walk in with the very young Wyatt Roy, who was positively beaming in his support of the change, was not comforting. We wondered how we could face campaigning on campus in Liberal shirts, when such damage has been done to the Liberal brand in just one night. Giving up political interest, resigning from the party and limiting our involvement to reading the daily paper; these are tempting responses. The flurry of resignations has already begun, with centre and far right liberals wondering if a conservative will ever reign again, or if Australian debate only matters when the Q&A audience clap. We, the young and foolish, can’t understand why senior figures have such trouble battling ideas openly and accepting the consequences. We, the young and foolish, can’t understand how loyalty so easily vanishes when poll numbers are discussed.

Yet, we cannot give up. The battle of ideas is a contest worth entering. It costs us a lot to enter. It has cost Tony Abbott everything. This is the man who considered leaving politics before he became opposition leader, because he was struggling to pay his mortgage. It’s the man who rid us of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd fiasco. It’s the man who displayed remarkable loyalty under pressure to ministers such as Joe Hockey and Bronwyn Bishop. Politics has cost him a lot. The gratitude for his sacrifice will be uncertain. However, for those of us still young and foolish, for those of us who love the battle of ideas, it is Tony Abbott’s legacy of sacrifice, loyalty and sticking to principles, which will fuel our motivation. As a heartbroken party base tries to recover, we can never forget that politics will cost us a lot. What’s done is done, but we must hold on to our convictions. Someone has to.