You can tell I am not a fan of politics or political parties.
Neither am I, though suffice to say it is mainly only because of the particular climate of the political landscape that we have in recent years.
It feels like we're having a civil war, except that it's being fought in the offices and white collar rooms. A "real" civil war that we see in the rest of the world involves war, guns, hostages, coup d'etats, assassinations and outwardly visible corruption. We look down on that kind of behaviour, and yet we basically do the same thing (except it's not as visible, and it doesn't involve physical force) - and we have the gall to call it "fair game" conduct.
And then there's the Australian population who put up with this.
The alternatives are socialism, communism or a dictatorship. I'm sure many people here would not be a fan of that, but at least it makes the whole election and political mud fights rigmarole redundant.
And anyone who thinks that political mud fights are good and a worthy bit of entertainment is
sick, and should be promptly shot between the eyes.
I was getting into the lift at work the other day and outside were an elderly lady and another person. I sort of caught part of the conversation and it appeared this elderly lady was worried the smear campaign against Gillard at the moment was harming her chances at the next election. Why would anyone care if Gillard gets in again. Why would an individual not involved care that much? Even if you were hard core Labor you should know the decision to make her leader was clearly the wrong one.
And unfortunately people vote for the wrong reasons....
Well, perhaps she thinks the same, but us lowly population rarely have a separate choice of (a) the party we want to run the country, and (b) the leader of that said party. A vote for one implies the other.
I know many people (and I'm included) who do not like Gillard - either as a leader of Labour or a prime minister - but at least right now I would not prefer a Coalition government. And for me I definitely do not want Abbott as a prime minister.
That emphasises a really important and depressing choice many of us make: we are usually voting
against someone who we do
not want, rather than voting for someone we do want. I think that's completely against the principles of democracy. I've said it several times before: I think it makes Australia look like a political and global embarrassment, especially when we supposedly have excellent governmental principles.
If voting was not compulsory, I probably would not vote for quite a few of the previous elections. They have all been awful decisions to make. If voting involved having to press a button and a gun was pointed at your head until you pushed a button to vote, I'd probably actually ask the guard to pull the trigger.
Who knows - if Gillard makes the next election, maybe someone within Labour will do a Kevin Rudd, knife her in the back (perhaps literally) and install a new Labour leader (and new prime minister).
