(no subject)
Y'know, growing up in my household necessarily instilled in both me certain dogmatic political views, so when I say a choice between a sharp stick in the eye and voting Liberal will always result in a hasty trip to the ophthalmologist, it comes from a certain context. However, this is not to say that I don't genuinely loathe and despise the Liberal government we just re-elected for a myriad of reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with the colour of their party stripes. As in,
--John Howard is a conservative little shit who, unfortunately, knows very well the amount of conservative shit that still plays with the Australian populace and doesn't mind chucking any previous political inclination out the window (except perhaps his clandestine love affair with Dubya) at the first whiff of a populist policy.
--Their treatment of refugees is a-fucking-bysmal, no matter whether you think leaving behind family, belongings, your home country and anything remotely familiar and climbing into a leaking boat is sufficient evidence of one's legitimate refugee status.
--Australia troops are in Iraq, token presence kept strictly out of harm's way that it is, because of a free trade deal and the dubious protection of being a ready, willing, lube out, pants down American ally. Those are the only reasons we are there, and they're shit reasons for being in a war like this one.
--The amendment to the Marriage Act that the Liberals passed, (i.e gay couples are prevented from adopting children from overseas, and marriage is specifically defined as being between a man and a woman). A little political gambit at another divisive topic which Labor swallowed because they're still sporting the bruises of not properly executing the 'lie back and think of England' approach when the Tampa came sailing over the horizon--an amendment which will stand (assuming it's passed by the senate, which it will almost certainly will be, now) unless repealed or amended by some future Government 'cause our constitution flutters free as a butterfly, no pesky bill of rights to tie it down, which means minority causes are pretty much up shit creek without a paddle. (I nearly strained something rolling my eyes at some of the theorists we were reading in const. law last semester, people who apparently had a confidence in human nature that would not have been out of place in your average Care Bears cartoon.)
--And do I even have to say it? Tam.Pa. There are some things you don't want to believe about your country, no matter how closely you've embraced the general Aussie distaste for non-sport related patriotism. That we were being led by a party and a man happy to exploit the sometimes latent, sometimes less-so xenophobic tendencies of the populace for their political gain is not something I would have been surprised at when I was seven, let along seventeen. That those tactics were so effective in legitimizing fear and hatred under the veneer of concern for 'border security'...I'm still not over that.
So, yeah. The so-called 'Liberal' government of John Winston Howard tends to make me see red. On the other hand, as much as I still genuinely like Mark Latham, nasty plastic coating and sound-bite verbals he's been serving up this campaign not-withstanding, I don't see myself volunteering as a party faithful anytime soon. I want John Howard out on his arse, but I didn't offer any of my free time up to achieve it this campaign, and since I'll be trying to haul ass through 5th year law next time, I doubt I will then, either. Feeling morally superior because of your political views is just as abhorrent from one side of the fence as the other; I didn't do much other than vote to support my beliefs, I am in no position to judge. I don't have a mortgage, I don't have kids, I do have a nice hefty HECS debt, but given my Uni, that won't change under either party. And it's something I have to keep reminding myself, that I have the luxury of my opinions because of how much my parents earn, how much my brother earns, the education I've received and continue to receive. I am entirely comfortable, and likely to remain so--and it's so easy to be judgemental, to harbour distaste for the choices other people make, in a position like mine.
Politics is a strange mixture of cynicism and dogmatic belief, for me. My father comes from a large lower-middle class Melbourne family--staunch Labor voter, with the usual sprinkling of 1st preferences for the Greens or Democrats. I grew up on political satire like "Yes, Minister'' (which, to a eight year old, seems to be written in a highly mystifying adults-only language that they find inexplicably hilarious) and my father talking to the television, snorting with derisive amusement at whatever was emerging from the mouths of the Liberals of the time. To this day, 90% of the meaningful conversations I have with my father are about politics. The idea of Labor as the 'good' guys, with the Liberals as the slightly demonic other is a little too deeply ingrained in me for my liking; it is a default assumption that tends to come smack up against the healthy cynicism that I also picked up from dear daddy, and to which I think we've both succumb to all the more, the older we both get. So, the subconscious pull of being able to wrap myself up in self-righteousness and say 'I'm right, you're wrong' aside, I don't believe that a Latham government would have heralded a new age of political honesty, integrity or anything really, other than a lack of certain policies that make my skin crawl. I'm with Bob Brown on this--John Howard's view of how Australia should be scares the fuck out of me. The idea that the Coalition is going to control the senate with the help of a fundamental wacko party that refused to preference a Liberal candidate simply because she is a lesbian, and who don't mind having volunteers willing to espouse the idea that lesbians should be burned at the stake, well, my blood is running ice cold.
--John Howard is a conservative little shit who, unfortunately, knows very well the amount of conservative shit that still plays with the Australian populace and doesn't mind chucking any previous political inclination out the window (except perhaps his clandestine love affair with Dubya) at the first whiff of a populist policy.
--Their treatment of refugees is a-fucking-bysmal, no matter whether you think leaving behind family, belongings, your home country and anything remotely familiar and climbing into a leaking boat is sufficient evidence of one's legitimate refugee status.
--Australia troops are in Iraq, token presence kept strictly out of harm's way that it is, because of a free trade deal and the dubious protection of being a ready, willing, lube out, pants down American ally. Those are the only reasons we are there, and they're shit reasons for being in a war like this one.
--The amendment to the Marriage Act that the Liberals passed, (i.e gay couples are prevented from adopting children from overseas, and marriage is specifically defined as being between a man and a woman). A little political gambit at another divisive topic which Labor swallowed because they're still sporting the bruises of not properly executing the 'lie back and think of England' approach when the Tampa came sailing over the horizon--an amendment which will stand (assuming it's passed by the senate, which it will almost certainly will be, now) unless repealed or amended by some future Government 'cause our constitution flutters free as a butterfly, no pesky bill of rights to tie it down, which means minority causes are pretty much up shit creek without a paddle. (I nearly strained something rolling my eyes at some of the theorists we were reading in const. law last semester, people who apparently had a confidence in human nature that would not have been out of place in your average Care Bears cartoon.)
--And do I even have to say it? Tam.Pa. There are some things you don't want to believe about your country, no matter how closely you've embraced the general Aussie distaste for non-sport related patriotism. That we were being led by a party and a man happy to exploit the sometimes latent, sometimes less-so xenophobic tendencies of the populace for their political gain is not something I would have been surprised at when I was seven, let along seventeen. That those tactics were so effective in legitimizing fear and hatred under the veneer of concern for 'border security'...I'm still not over that.
So, yeah. The so-called 'Liberal' government of John Winston Howard tends to make me see red. On the other hand, as much as I still genuinely like Mark Latham, nasty plastic coating and sound-bite verbals he's been serving up this campaign not-withstanding, I don't see myself volunteering as a party faithful anytime soon. I want John Howard out on his arse, but I didn't offer any of my free time up to achieve it this campaign, and since I'll be trying to haul ass through 5th year law next time, I doubt I will then, either. Feeling morally superior because of your political views is just as abhorrent from one side of the fence as the other; I didn't do much other than vote to support my beliefs, I am in no position to judge. I don't have a mortgage, I don't have kids, I do have a nice hefty HECS debt, but given my Uni, that won't change under either party. And it's something I have to keep reminding myself, that I have the luxury of my opinions because of how much my parents earn, how much my brother earns, the education I've received and continue to receive. I am entirely comfortable, and likely to remain so--and it's so easy to be judgemental, to harbour distaste for the choices other people make, in a position like mine.
Politics is a strange mixture of cynicism and dogmatic belief, for me. My father comes from a large lower-middle class Melbourne family--staunch Labor voter, with the usual sprinkling of 1st preferences for the Greens or Democrats. I grew up on political satire like "Yes, Minister'' (which, to a eight year old, seems to be written in a highly mystifying adults-only language that they find inexplicably hilarious) and my father talking to the television, snorting with derisive amusement at whatever was emerging from the mouths of the Liberals of the time. To this day, 90% of the meaningful conversations I have with my father are about politics. The idea of Labor as the 'good' guys, with the Liberals as the slightly demonic other is a little too deeply ingrained in me for my liking; it is a default assumption that tends to come smack up against the healthy cynicism that I also picked up from dear daddy, and to which I think we've both succumb to all the more, the older we both get. So, the subconscious pull of being able to wrap myself up in self-righteousness and say 'I'm right, you're wrong' aside, I don't believe that a Latham government would have heralded a new age of political honesty, integrity or anything really, other than a lack of certain policies that make my skin crawl. I'm with Bob Brown on this--John Howard's view of how Australia should be scares the fuck out of me. The idea that the Coalition is going to control the senate with the help of a fundamental wacko party that refused to preference a Liberal candidate simply because she is a lesbian, and who don't mind having volunteers willing to espouse the idea that lesbians should be burned at the stake, well, my blood is running ice cold.