Political Storm Water

Snow flurries on the Snowy turn into rainfall as all of us embark on the 2013 Australian elections. Like falling leaves that land on the rapids of a  fast flowing storm water stream, many of us are mostly unaware of submerged dangers that will render us out of control toward our destination. Some of us will unsuccessfully attempt to aim at the best path to descend the inevitable spillway into the cesspit that we will have-to endure for the next 3 years and beyond. It is then that it will be revealed that we were severely miss informed or blatantly lied to.

Most of us are more complacent and will accept our fate but complain all the way demanding intervention on poor decisions by pollies that we have allowed to rest in positions that will make very important life changing directions.

It would be good if we were able to grasp a rudder enabling us a better chance to make informed effective choices toward calmer waters and eventually steer ourselves to rest in safety with a clearer view of the future.

Like at the dinner table most of us over the age of 23 have been brought up to be “seen and not heard” believing that corruption is not in our vocabulary. However with the ever improving communication in social media we can now look at the youth around the table and see that they can be very well informed, and some will be more accurate than we would like to believe.

Examining my own thoughts on the understanding of the current political arena, I find myself severely inadequate and out of date. So I have embraced the internet and social media as I try to understand and keep up to the constantly changing political horizon.

How to vote was my first misconception so I visited the Australian Electoral Commission web site on how to vote and had a practice run. This revealed that I need only one number above the line OR every number below the line on the 2013 Senate ballot paper.

When I visited the page that showed me how many party choices I had in the Senate I was overwhelmed. There are way over 50 party  choices which made me reach for the control rudder and look for a safety harness on my poor out of control floating leaf.

I now realised that I need to be more informed and have the need to begin to use the tools that are within our grasp to stay informed and maybe have some control as to what will affect me when we get there.

There were now many more questions which needed to be answered before I can truthfully vote effectively. I entered all the party names one by one into a search engine “Google” to see the candidates and their policies. Yes over fifty of them. This is where complacency will prevail if one is too lazy to see for oneself what each party is on about. If you fall into this hole now, you will release the control rudder to someone else and you cannot honestly complain about the captain/pilot of our vessel and where he/she will take us..

From this mammoth task I now have more respect for the youth that constantly nudge the net through face-book, twitter, wikipedia and an increasing number of places to visit for instant verification and a balanced take on the swirling political state of the nation.

Note: In days gone by, we would have to wait for the next issue of the local rag to be informed or misinformed as the case may be, or follow the political bias of a radio or TV station.

For a better understanding of where each party sits in comparison to any political agenda I needed to be educated as to the political jargon and values in their terms of references. I found that the Political compass web site gave me a 2D graphic analysis scale which I can apply to my newly found sentiments of this current political arena. The graphic analysis chart has an x,y axis with a vertical “social” scale and a horizontal “economic” scale. The recognisable terms on these scales are  communism (left) to “capitalism” (right) and libertarian (below) rising to authoritarian (above) the origin.

I entered the political positions of each party on this graph and going back in history I also plotted the positions of iconic names such as Hitler Stalin Thatcher and Gandhi in the appropriate quadrants that would give me a truer perspective scale to compare. If you did one for yourself, you will be startled to see that you now have the confidence to determine a target placing for your proposed party.

Due to party and individuals jostling for position my preferences will not go where I think it will. Therefore instead of entering 1 in the box beside one party above the line, I will need to fill in the required numbers under the line on the Senate ballot paper.

This is where it gets interesting……… To be able to fill in the Senate ballot paper under the line I would need to place a numbers in the box alongside all candidates. This means I will have to choose at least 10 parties that I believe will make a difference in this fiasco, because the count will probably not get past the first 10 party preferences.

With my newly plotted political compass in mind My choices would cover a variety of qualities within each party to be able to address important issues pertinent to a safe arrival of my floating leaf.

The homework now begins to seek the parties that would deliver policies that will make the difference and restore and preserve good Australian values.

In my research I found that our youth have a vibrant take on things with humorous and democratic sentiments that oldies like me struggle to accept as informed and educated. I reckon we should move forward assisting each other as to our commonouses.

In view of the above I am impressed with youthful parties like Coke In The Bubblers Party and Pirate Party Australia who use all the social media technologies to keep everybody informed and would respond to all inquiries very quickly via their forums and feeds on facebook, twitter and various blogs. Which is far better than can be said for traditional parties that don’t respond at all as though they were brain dead.

I am happy to say that I am now confident to fill out the ballot papers on the 7^th September 2013 for the Senate which is also closely aligned to reflect the correct candidate in the House of reps to be in a position to navigate us all safely to a fair and advanced Australia.