As we approach the half-way mark in the federal election campaign, energy is starting to flag. Some politicians and commentators are starting to lose the plot. Who do you think is now most disconnected from the voters?
Is it Tony Abbott, who yesterday slagged off a dying man? Arch-monarchist and oddly right-wing David Flint? Or one of our other choices? Have you any other suggestions? Go to the website to vote!
[poll id=”12″]
Last week’s results: Well OK the last poll was online for much longer than a week. Nevertheless, the results were precisely as predicted by the Snarky Platypus. Our new national animal is indeed the “lying rodent”.
Nice unbiased set of choices there 😉 You should write the News polls.
@jason: Thank you. After all, you wouldn’t want me falling for The Myth of Objectivity, would you?
I don’t see the Labor (me too) Party anywhere.
I’d really like to not vote at all, just encourages ’em, but then I wouldn’t be entitled to whinge at all, would I? 😉
@Cassie ST: Oh, I don’t see any National party mentions either. Or Family First. Or Pauline Hanson. Or any journalists of any persuasions. Or… maybe it’s not that serious a thing. Just maybe.
But we’re all entitled to whinge! The one right no government can ever take away from us!
I’d be much quicker to say that Pauline Hanson, rather than anyone else, is the most disconnected from voters. Out of anyone, I’d think she’d be the obvious choice, with the outrageous policies and the whole ‘if you’re watching this video, I may be dead’ thing.
Then again, it’s almost been a decade since she was in public office. Maybe I’m just buying into the myth that she’s still got anything to do with Australian politics, in real terms.
Ah the democrats, remember when they could get bites?
I couldn’t bring myself to vote for them, breaks my heart but sometimes I think that Mr Chipp pissed in pool on his way out.
In this election it’s all about relevance.
Greens, irrelevant.
Democrats, irrelevant.
Nationals, yes, repletion is the key; irrelevant.
Labor, surprisingly, irrelevant.
Howard’s Liberal Government to Rival Mnzies being displayed in its final days as being inept, out of touch and short sighted. History will be cruel. The only thing relevant about this election iS that Howard has been around long enough for all the crap they chucked onto the future to arrive. A democratic politician’s worse nightmare, -“This was supposed to the other party’s problem!â€
Oh, and who the hell is this pauline hanson I keep hearing about…
wheee!!!
@Alex Willemyns: Pauline Hanson’s views still resonate with “a certain section of the electorate”. More’s the pity. Plus she has the useful role of being a caricature which more centrist parties can point to and say “We’re not like her”, allowing them to be further to the right than otherwise.
A few weeks back election analyst Antony Green told me not to write her off just yet. I wonder if he still thinks that.
@nyknyk: Yes, history will be cruel to JWH. As so many people have said, he could’ve gone out on a high and been recorded as a long-serving worthy-but-dull PM. Now he’ll look like the grubby power-hungry rodent hanging on until removed from office in the biggest landslide to Labor since WWII.
Unless, of course, he does win this election. Possible, but very very very very very very very unlikely.
Democrats supporters easily — a couple of them have been quite vocal on the blogs and it’s a bit embarrassing. Just let the poor thing die in peace and get prepared for the neo-Democrats (and get a better member/party structure next time around).
And yes, it is all about John Howard this election. Probably in not the way he wants it to be though…
It really is about John Howard.
Not sure I believe any of the promises being made are remotely genuine or practicle, from either side.
But I would like the greens back in the Senate.
Anyways. The world stage is something that will influence our lives more than anything else in the next decade, I reckon. And compared to that our own petty domestics seem simple and silly. Makes me wonder why we just can’t get it right down here in paradise.
The only thing relevant about this election iS that Howard has been around long enough for all the crap they chucked onto the future to arrive.
And with a stroke, nyknyk deconstructs Howard’s entire fourth term. Yet while the syntax could be better, it’s insights of this scale that prevent disasters and save lives.
@jason: Re:“I would like the greens back in the Senate.” I retract my earlier accusations of you being nothing more than a loyal Howard junkyard dog. You are more than that, apparently.
As for the poll question, it has to be Democrat supporters. Here’s why:
Democrat supporters, as distinct from the party proper, are already an independent segment of the voting public. So given the funeral arrangements for the Australian Democrats are all but finalised for Monday, 26 November, the question becomes:
Is this segment of the electorate so blindly loyal and stubborn (to unquestioningly invest its primary vote in a political carcass with so little in the way of self esteem — let alone policy) that it could be even more out of touch with its fellow voters than the hopelessly out-of-touch party machine men in Canberra?
I can reach but one conclusion.
I oughta know… I used to be one myself.
I always wonder what world it would be if the democrats got out of the keeping bastards honest business and sidled up to labor in response to the jaggy coalition.
missed oportunity or horrific nanny state, who knows…
@nyknyk: Interesting thought, but there are two problems. (1) Right now it looks like the ALP doesn’t ne4ed the Democrats, they’ll get the House of Reps on their own. (2) The NSW Right of the ALP, where The Real Power lies, can’t even share with the factions in their own party, let alone “outsiders”.
Mind you, a broad coalition of the left could, conceivably, get power even if the ALP weren’t in such a commanding position this time around. Can you imagine trying to get them to agree though?