The feel of democracy.

Nov 25, 2007 13:20

This was my first time as a "democratic voter" and I found it to be empowering to an extent.
Having been watching a democracy series of documentaries on SBS last month has made me realise that we really are in a lucky country, and though there is always room for change, we have that privilage to change our country's government.

I also observed a lot of interesting things during this campaign.

- I am a little disgruntled at how we call this country "democratic" when realistically, we need to choose between two parties. I voted for a party other then those "in power", and it looks as though a tiny percentage of Australians did too. The remainder seemed to have felt that the parties in power were the best, or that they only had that choice. One thing I find exciting in the future is if Labor or Liberals will one day lose power to parties such as the Greens or Democrats. I hope it isn't the Christian Democrats.

- Talking to some of my fellow generation who were also voting for the first time, I was kind of weirded out how they didn't really seem to understand the extent to there involvement in our potential change of government. Some were just too busy thinking about "how hard" it is to actually vote. Other young people in countries torn apart by political extremists or militants, only dream of participating in something like this. We have such power to potentially change our country as a group, its incredible. Every vote counts.

- Apparently in our constitution, we must vote in pencil. Let's hope that this country never turns into America where votes mysteriously go missing and consequentially changed. I understand, however, that perhaps when this was apparently written into the constitution in the 1900's, where there were no pens/pens where expensive. But I was surprised at how many other people thought that pencil voting was a bit dodge.

Politics is indeed a fascinating world, but so is the power of a vote.

I just hope that Mr Rudd will help maintain this country and just be able to face the environmental and financial crisis that is going to eventually occur.

australian politics, democracy

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