You can fool me all of the time

On Saturday 17 July, the next Federal election was scheduled for Saturday 21 August. So today’s day 13 of the 36 day campaign period. And already I’m sick of it. It’s so predictable. And boring. The party leaders have no long-term vision, and no coordinated policy platform. They espouse only pap. And on the overriding issue of global warming and climate change they’re absent: the Government proposes a citizen’s talkfest [1], and the Opposition zilch because its leader’s a climate change denier [2]. How I yearn for politicians who are different. And innovative. Who inspire rather than aspire. I was about to write ‘like Barack Obama’. But the merest reflection reveals he’s a massive disappointment. A better candidate than President is Mr Obama. To find an inspirational elected political leader, maybe one must hark back to Abraham Lincoln. I’ve written [3] that Perhaps the most famous words Lincoln said in his life came at the end of his Gettysburg Address – regarding ‘government: of the people, by the people, for the people’ [4]. If only that was true today. Lincoln’s second most famous quote could be ‘You can fool some of the people some of the time…’ [5]. When it comes to politics, I’m foolable. For I don’t care. Even so, I doubt my ability to stay sane during the next 23 days until my fellow Australians and I vote. Unless I switch it all off. Literally. Which is what I’ve resolved to do. It’s the sanest decision I’ve made lately. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 473

Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps the most famous words he said in his life came at the end of his Gettysburg Address, regarding ‘government: of the people, by the people, for the people’. They’re obviously true. Or are they?

Of the people – suggests those elected are representative of the public-at-large. They aren’t. They’re people with a propensity to exercise power, to be in the public eye, to give expression to some perceived ideology or ideal. Or whatever. But they’re self-selected – not selected by a table of random numbers.

By the people – suggests voters know what they’re doing, who they vote for, why they vote the way they do. Seemingly self-evident. But wrong. Nowadays election campaigns are slick and targeted, run according to the numbers, peppered with half-truths, or even quarter-truths. And election winners are often those with the biggest budgets and cleverest spin doctors.

For the people – suggests governments serve the people’s interest. They don’t. To think they do is a joke, a furphy, patent nonsense. They serve various interests: campaign donors, big business, those who ensure future re-election, others. If governments governed for the people, there’d be no need for the Grands Prix Act, the Pulp Mill Assessment Act [1] and other laws that purposely curtail citizens’ rights and freedoms. And Hepburn Shire wouldn’t block local farmers obtaining permits to build shops for farmgate sales – which is a problem facing Daylesford Organics. The Shire’s policy’s myopic and stupid. Its rationale’s obscure. It serves someone’s interests. But not the people’s. That’s for sure.