Monday, September 13, 2010

The trouble with elections


Oh! Oh! Alarm bells!

It seems that American elections are upon us again, and we may even get back the Republican ship of fools that sailed us to the economic standstill in which we are apparently becalmed, despite the shouts of "Land, Ahoy!" from the White House rigging, and the certitude of the Tea Party in their refudiation of the Democrats' best efforts.

Now maybe it is time to take a leaf from the Australian political playbook.

Some background. Australia has two political parties, the Liberals (very conservative and rather gullible) and the Labour Party (rather left-leaning and naive).

The Liberals got tossed out a few years back, after their fearless leader, Little Ronnie Howard (no relation to the talented American actor/director) just pissed everybody off so much (dancing into Iraq with GWB, mission accomplished) that Labour took over. Meanwhile, management changes have taken place in the Liberal Party, and their new leader, Tony Abbott, calls climate science "crap", is very opposed to gay marriage, and has his knickers in a twist about illegal immigration by boat people. Yes, a true Republican in everything but name!

Well, if you have been following Australian politics, you would know that the elections in August 2010 resulted in a draw, so Australia doesn't have a Government. Yes, this could be a solution to the problems we have in the US, but that is not the reason I am writing this piece.

See, I am tired of elections being so incredibly boring. Yes, we all know that politicians promise the earth, and then don't do what they promise. Same story, different day, and voting only encourages them.

So why not have some fun along the way, Australian-style?

In these recent elections, the Labour Party ran a web site featuring the current leader of the Liberal party, Tony Abbott. The poster at the top of this page is one of the hundreds on the web site, and was designed by a visitor!

I am totally impressed with the idea of political web sites that encourage the electorate to use their skills to interactively design election material. And then include it in a blog!

I can't wait for the Sarah Palin web site. I am working on slogans already.

Hey, you know we won't get better politicians, but at least we can have some fun dancing on the deck. Who knew the ship of fools was called the Titanic?

1 comment:

  1. ...and doing Kate Winslet.How about do or die aeriel dogfights, murderous auto races like in
    "On The Beach." The Sinatra/ Ava Gardner epic by Neville Shute. New Zealander.

    ReplyDelete