Current Events > I wish politicians were more empathetic and worked for the interest of th people

(+) Yeah! (+)

This post is going to be more Australian-centric, because I feel like it's important to talk about where I'm from as opposed to projecting my own values on American politics. Y'all Republicans still suck, though.

In Australia, we have a pretty divided political landscape right now. We have a PM who voiced disapproval at legalising gay marriage, who has since made statements supporting school principals who want the right to expel gay students from Catholic schools specifically for being gay. Earlier this year we had another PM who has become categorised as the PM who did nothing but keep his head down and pay basic lip service to his political party. Our PM before that was a loud-mouthed fuckwit who scaremongered about refugees and this "budget crisis", who A) ran on a platform of "Stop the Boats" despite most illegal immigration taking place via air travel, and B) spat in the face of the Australian people by paying $9 billion on fighter jets for "border security" while telling us that the country was out of money thanks to the political party in power before him.

That political party is now shaking itself to pieces with in-fighting. You know how I said we as a different prime minister this year? This wasn't an election year. A band of politicians got together and challenged his leadership, and the winner of an internal vote replaced him. This is our 2nd prime minister in a row to have come to power this way.

What I want to see out of my nation's politicians is some basic human decency and support for each other, and I want them to work for the interest of the people. Our conservative government wouldn't put out a vote on whether we should legalise gay marriage, we only got to that point because the Labor Party lobbied for it and stood behind it when it became a contentious public issue. Our government then changed the method of voting something like four times, scrapping a relatively cheap mail-in vote system for a $185 million plebiscite. We paid a wholly unnecessary $185 million to express the opinion that yes, two dudes or ladies who bone down with each other should be allowed the same legal right of marriage as all of the P-in-V folks, when we could have expressed the exact same message in a far cheaper way.

We have politicians who operate in a way that's completely counterintuitive to the will of the people who they work for. Our minister of Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, spent thousands of tax dollars on private transportation and accommodation, like holidays and shit, by billing it as business expenses. Tony Abbott, the PM who blew 9 billion bucks on fighter jets, used a five figure sum to fly him and several close associates to a wedding - they attended the wedding of Australia's richest woman on the public's dime. We had a mass exodus of politicians this year because they lied about their citizenship, I think like 12+ politicians were forced to resign over that. We've seen time and again, from our politicians, behavior that flies in the face of what the Australian people want. We've seen politicians say one thing and do the exact opposite thing for years.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were politicians who were outgoing and transparent about how much money they spend, if they actually sat down and discussed what they were doing and why they were doing it? Wouldn't it be good if our politicians - these people who are elected to work on behalf of the people - would enact legislation that improved our day to day lives and actually worked for us in visible, tangible ways? Things happen from time to time, NSW got a Return and Earn program that pays money for recycling empty bottles, but for the last decade it feels like nothing much has really changed. We weathered the global economic crisis, legalised gay marriage and received two prime ministers who we didn't vote for. That's what sticks out to me. And we keep getting fed the same shit every single day. We need politicians who represent us and work for our interests.
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We need younger people in offices, not older people who are stuck in their ways and don't give a fuck about the current generation.
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TL;DR it would be nice to have politicians who were transparent with their policies and spendint, actively and visibly working to support the Australian people and who are not absolute fuckwits. It's been too long since we've seen a politician who isn't a complete fuckwit, and it's been even longer since anyone who even remotely resembles a politician like that has been Prime Minister.
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Politics in a lot of places is pretty shitty right now, unfortunately.

Not sure what else I can say, other than that I hear you and that Australian politics sounds really crap right now
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TC a politicians job isn't to serve the people, its to maintain or better yet grow his or her political power.
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teepan95 posted...

Politics in a lot of places is pretty shitty right now, unfortunately.

Not sure what else I can say, other than that I hear you and that Australian politics sounds really crap right now

Thanks for the words of support. I sure as shit don't pity American folks with your administration, though - our Trump period happened at the start of this decade with Tony Abbott, but with how much denser America is in population and diversity, and with the wacked out way his fanbase behaves, I can't imagine how much worse things are for you guys.

Like even our resident lizard-skinned onion man didn't have this cult of personality bullshit going for him. We have a wannabe Trump in Clive Palmer (an independent who is corporate as fuck - this is the guy who's building the Titanic II, what a fucking clown), but nothing quite as messed up as T-Bag.

If Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson did a fusion dance and became the same person, we'd probably have Donald Trump. But they can't do so and remain separate people. Having that person as your commander in chief is bonkers as shit.
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monkmith posted...

TC a politicians job isn't to serve the people, its to maintain or better yet grow his or her political power.

I mean with how a sheer majority of politicians behave, I can't say that you're wrong. That's certainly how things seem to work.
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MrMallard posted...

teepan95 posted...

Politics in a lot of places is pretty shitty right now, unfortunately.

Not sure what else I can say, other than that I hear you and that Australian politics sounds really crap right now

Thanks for the words of support. I sure as shit don't pity American folks with your administration, though - our Trump period happened at the start of this decade with Tony Abbott, but with how much denser America is in population and diversity, and with the wacked out way his fanbase behaves, I can't imagine how much worse things are for you guys.

Like even our resident lizard-skinned onion man didn't have this cult of personality bullshit going for him. We have a wannabe Trump in Clive Palmer (an independent who is corporate as fuck - this is the guy who's building the Titanic II, what a fucking clown), but nothing quite as messed up as T-Bag.

If Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson did a fusion dance and became the same person, we'd probably have Donald Trump. But they can't do so and remain separate people. Having that person as your commander in chief is bonkers as shit.

I'm not American <_<

#heavilyburntpotato
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MrMallard posted...

monkmith posted...

TC a politicians job isn't to serve the people, its to maintain or better yet grow his or her political power.

I mean with how a sheer majority of politicians behave, I can't say that you're wrong. That's certainly how things seem to work.

its cynical, but its how i look at all politicians. they're all either getting some form of monetary gain or they're sociopaths on a power trip, none of it has to do with serving the people. true altruism doesn't do well in politics since it doesn't campaign/rally well...
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monkmith posted...

TC a politicians job isn't to serve the people, its to maintain or better yet grow his or her political power.

Yeah sounds to me like they are just modeling after american politics.
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monkmith posted...

MrMallard posted...

monkmith posted...

TC a politicians job isn't to serve the people, its to maintain or better yet grow his or her political power.

I mean with how a sheer majority of politicians behave, I can't say that you're wrong. That's certainly how things seem to work.

its cynical, but its how i look at all politicians. they're all either getting some form of monetary gain or they're sociopaths on a power trip, none of it has to do with serving the people. true altruism doesn't do well in politics since it doesn't campaign/rally well...

Being cynical in this regard is pretty much the view that matches what we see in reality and throughout history so theres that.
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MrMallard posted...

the teep-man

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it's the teep-man!
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monkmith posted...

MrMallard posted...

monkmith posted...

TC a politicians job isn't to serve the people, its to maintain or better yet grow his or her political power.

I mean with how a sheer majority of politicians behave, I can't say that you're wrong. That's certainly how things seem to work.

its cynical, but its how i look at all politicians. they're all either getting some form of monetary gain or they're sociopaths on a power trip, none of it has to do with serving the people. true altruism doesn't do well in politics since it doesn't campaign/rally well...

I would think that people would value honesty and integrity in their politicians. You see a politician with the constitution to enact change and who uses their power in a way that serves and enlightens the people that they work for, and I feel like most folks would take a shine to that approach.

We've grown used to this surly, insular inner-circle bullcrap, but if there were people working with integrity and compassionate intent, I would like to think that they would shine.
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MrMallard posted...

monkmith posted...

MrMallard posted...

monkmith posted...

TC a politicians job isn't to serve the people, its to maintain or better yet grow his or her political power.

I mean with how a sheer majority of politicians behave, I can't say that you're wrong. That's certainly how things seem to work.

its cynical, but its how i look at all politicians. they're all either getting some form of monetary gain or they're sociopaths on a power trip, none of it has to do with serving the people. true altruism doesn't do well in politics since it doesn't campaign/rally well...

I would think that people would value honesty and integrity in their politicians. You see a politician with the constitution to enact change and who uses their power in a way that serves and enlightens the people that they work for, and I feel like most folks would take a shine to that approach.

We've grown used to this surly, insular inner-circle bullcrap, but if there were people working with integrity and compassionate intent, I would like to think that they would shine.

in a perfect world sure. but successful politicians, the sociopaths on power trips, use every trick in the book to sway people to their side. the truth is that honesty just doesn't work as well as fear mongering, since fear mongering talks to that instinctive primal brain that drives our subconscious.
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