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All the "we need political change" focus in Australia is about changing the party in power.
ALL OF IT.
Which, yes, as my tumblr post about democracy noted, you start by making a less-bad choice to have better options next time. Democracy is a slow process - we've gotten to where we are by sliding degrees although the awareness of just how much is sliding has only been in the last few years, and the truth is that it'll take sliding degrees to get out of it.
And no, this isn't going to be a popular call for a society of instant satisfaction.
Yes, we need to change the party in power.
BUT ALSO.
I live in an area whose local MPs are unlikely to change. Our area is one of the safest conservative seats in the country. This region of Sydney votes for the conservatives every time. Hell, the last election, the conservative representative was down 6% points...and he still was over 50% of the electorates before they even started counting preferences.
We don't have a state or federal election for the next two years at least. So...what do we do? Just sit here and take it?
The only thing that most people are willing to say is, "You should support the alternative political party!!" Which, yes. I can do that financially and in my vote when the elections come around, BUT. I'd like to do something more.
Most of the push for changing the party in power is from people in political parties. Most of the push for financially supporting activist organisations is from adverts paid for by activist organisations.
What if pressing a button isn't enough for me? What do I do then?
My answer is personal interaction with our elected representatives: letters, emails, phone calls. The truth is that even people who voted for these guys on whatever thing hit their button, they might disagree with them on something else and be willing to push for that.
Finding people to get involved? That's tricky. It takes caring and effort and that's not an easy thing to ask people who are already stretched.
But I'm going to give it a red-hot go...
ALL OF IT.
Which, yes, as my tumblr post about democracy noted, you start by making a less-bad choice to have better options next time. Democracy is a slow process - we've gotten to where we are by sliding degrees although the awareness of just how much is sliding has only been in the last few years, and the truth is that it'll take sliding degrees to get out of it.
And no, this isn't going to be a popular call for a society of instant satisfaction.
Yes, we need to change the party in power.
BUT ALSO.
I live in an area whose local MPs are unlikely to change. Our area is one of the safest conservative seats in the country. This region of Sydney votes for the conservatives every time. Hell, the last election, the conservative representative was down 6% points...and he still was over 50% of the electorates before they even started counting preferences.
We don't have a state or federal election for the next two years at least. So...what do we do? Just sit here and take it?
The only thing that most people are willing to say is, "You should support the alternative political party!!" Which, yes. I can do that financially and in my vote when the elections come around, BUT. I'd like to do something more.
Most of the push for changing the party in power is from people in political parties. Most of the push for financially supporting activist organisations is from adverts paid for by activist organisations.
What if pressing a button isn't enough for me? What do I do then?
My answer is personal interaction with our elected representatives: letters, emails, phone calls. The truth is that even people who voted for these guys on whatever thing hit their button, they might disagree with them on something else and be willing to push for that.
Finding people to get involved? That's tricky. It takes caring and effort and that's not an easy thing to ask people who are already stretched.
But I'm going to give it a red-hot go...
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I think my local MP is getting rather sick of emails from me, to be honest, but I'm going to keep on sending them. Because I can't get him unelected, but I can at least inform him whenever I thoroughly disapprove of what his party is up to.
no subject
That reminds me: *scribbles up another card*