elections used to be between the socialist left & the conservative right, between the revolutionaries & the reactionaries. But today, where it's election day in Australia, it's between what CNN quite correctly describes as the centre-left & the centre-right. The respective political party leaders tend almost to morph into the same person, it's been a me-too election, nobody wishing to offend that central self-centred majority of voters on whom both sides depend.
However, I'm glad the centre-left have emerged victorious. There is a chance that they may change the direction of this country. They've promised to withdraw from Iraq (but not Afghanistan); they've promised to ratify the Kyoto protocols on climate change; hopefully the treatment of the indigenous inhabitants, the traditional owners of this land, will improve; hopefully the gap between the haves & have-nots will halt its growth & even begin to reverse. I hope.
& I hope that maybe now Australia will become a republic.
1 comment:
me too mark, me too...
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