Lachlan18 said:
lol, wotch me bash da artz degre guyz & show da world im from da lib party lol artz degrez sux loool im so hard lmao
= the intellectual capacity of a Howard voter. I swear, every single Howard voter I've come across bash arts degrees. Thank gawd I don't live these hateful bully-infested lives. Yuck. :\
That's because it's much better to be a bully with a 'social conscience', right?
I find it strange that so many people criticise Mr Howard for being a 'fundie' yet they seemingly ignore Mr Rudd's own religious leanings. Guess what, guys, Mr Rudd is nothing more than a younger version of Mr Howard who happens to be a member of the ALP. I was going to say that in a party-room sense Mr Rudd seems more restrained than Mr Howard, but I have a feeling that it's more the ALP's structure than Mr Rudd's character that is keeping the ALP leader in check.
Personally, I'm not that excited about my two-party preferred options come the election. IR aside, there isn't a great deal separating the two major parties - even the issue of Climate Change may be best described as being a contest between different forms of rhetoric as opposed to policies awaiting implementation. Sure, education, health, welfare, indigenous welfare, etc. all to some degree represent points of difference between the two parties, but I find it hard to imagine that an ALP dominated by the Right would be any different to the Coalition when it comes to such policies being enacted at the grass roots level. In immigration and foreign affairs there's likely to be little difference (keep in mind that the ALP is merely in favour of withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq, not the Middle East in its entirety), and both major parties have already flagged telecommunication strategies that leave much to be desired. Even the prospect of a greater degree of cooperation (even if it's just in a superficial sense) between the states and the federal government doesn't seem all that attractive given that it may well turn the federal wing of the Liberal Party into something that much resembles the various state wings of the Party - poorly staffed, ineffective and largely ignored. Sure, this may seem like a great outcome to many, but the country needs a strong Liberal Party (and by extension a viable Coalition) if it's to ensure that our democracy functions as it should, and that's despite the Coalition's recent antics regarding parliamentary processes, funding and grants and electoral laws.
Anyway, I'll be directing my preferences to the ALP, but I'm under no illusion as to what I should expect a year or two down the track (should the ALP take the Lower House and the Coalition lose its majority in the Senate, that is). In general terms, the ALP policy platform loosely aligns with my political point of view, but as a party controlled by hacks and driven by populist sentiment, the ALP is hardly going to be any more progressive (or regressive, for that matter) than the current Coalition. It isn't what many would call a choice between the lesser of two evils, but it's hardly a choice that inspires a great deal of confidence.