Politics is a dirty game!

Politics is a dirty game!

Since my teenage years, I have been a passionate student of politics, and at times throughout my life, people have said to me, “you should be a politician!” or “Why don’t you get into politics?”.

And my answer has always been pretty much the same; “I couldn’t be that dishonest!”

Sadly, telling lies is a prerequisite for the job, and although most politicians go into politics to “Make a difference”, they quickly become seduced by the power, as they get overawed by their own importance.

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, and IMHO one of those was Tony Windsor, a thoroughly decent and credible man, who worked hard for his community and this country.

Another one was Julia Gillard, who worked hard to do the right thing for this country, and I believe will go down in history as one of our great reformist Prime Ministers.   😯         Yes she made mistakes, but who hasn’t?

The truth is though, that she did not get, what we Aussies used to pride ourselves on; “A fair go!”  Instead she was abused, accused and vilified almost daily by shock jocks, the MSM and the Federal opposition led by that epitome of mendacious meanderings, Tony (Facts… What facts?) Abbott.

Now, we’ve all heard the old saying “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!”  and we have seen plenty of examples over recent years.

And we don’t have to go too far afield, or too far back in time, although we could

John Howard: Crimes against humanity (Photo credit: publik1

find recent examples all over the world, Little Johnny Howard is a prime example of a man who lied his way through every election campaign, for the sake of his own ideological agenda, who’s legacy was:

• The Iraq war.
• The GST.
• The record as the most profligate government in Australia’s history.
• A middle class welfare system, that left pensioners and those that could least afford it without any real increases for years, while those that could afford to live relatively well received Government handouts.
• Surpluses in the bank, while the country was building up a massive structural deficit.

These are just a snapshot of the things that JWH was responsible for, and much of his dishonesty was based on personal and ideological political gain.

Campbell Newman is another example of a right wing nut job who’s majority means that he can ride roughshod over the rights of the people and workers because he is not held accountable.   Lies and deceptions are their stock in trade, and Newman has been spurred on by Abbott, who himself has turned lying into an art form.

I have written much on the connection between these two right wing liars, and their philosophies, and am using their similarities to emphasise my point.

Much of their push for power is ego and ambition driven,  although in Newman’s case I think there is an over-representation of “Small mans Syndrome” as well.    Of course this should all be seen in the context of their desire for power which, in the case of people like Abbott, is predicated on a personal belief that it is their right to rule.    (This belief is common among those of the rabid right, or “The Ruling class” as they are commonly known.)

Game of Thrones (soundtrack) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sadly there are people on all sides of politics who play the “Game of Thrones”:

• Lying
• Cheating
• Disrespecting
• Undermining
• Whiteanting
• Back stabbing
• Political assassinations

And the list goes on.

Rupert Murdoch pimps the news (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

This, sadly, is the nature of politics, but this game is not only played by politicians.

We have seen this in the case of Murdoch, who uses his power and influence to buy politicians for his own personal gain, as we have clearly seen in this last term of parliament, in particular, where he has worked closely with the rabid right to effect change in the ALP leadersip, as he sees Rudd as more malleable prospect than Gillard, whom he set about discrediting with the help of his bought and paid for LNP, and the whiteanting Rudd supporters.

The great irony of this current cycle came to light after Rudd had claimed the leadership of the ALP.

For the last three years, Julia Gillard has tried to play fair, which sadly was reflected in the fact that Abbott and his LNP spin machine was allowed to run riot with their lies and slogans, while PMJG got on with the job of running the country, only occasionally calling Abbott out, like she did with her world renowned “Misogyny” speech.

But as a general rule, she just ignored him and his mob, while they continued to brainwash the public into believing that she was a liar, running an incompetent and dysfunctional government, that was also illegitimate.

Kevin Rudd (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And thanks to a highly complicit MSM, who ran with every lie, misrepresentation, rumour and arguably dodgy opinion poll, they pretty much succeeded.  Of course they were also helped along with a barrage of leaks and whiteanting by Rudd supporters.

The irony previously mentioned came about as a result of Rudd doing what Gillard repeatedly refused to do, and that was to play Abbott’s dirty game.   And the LNP were outraged.

What did he do?

He took Abbott’s “alleged” policy of turning around the boats (Where it’s safe to do so   😆   ), and started an Abbott style fear campaign.   😀

Claiming that their blatant disregard for the Indonesian Ambassador, and for the Indonesian government’s oft repeated statements to the contrary, could cause a diplomatic “conflict”, sent Julie Bishop into an absolute frenzy of righteous  indignation, which bordered on the hysterical.

How dare you do what we do?

And to be honest, I thought it was hysterical to watch, as she accused Rudd of everything that she, Abbott and the entire LNP had been doing weekly if not daily for the last three years on the “Carbon tax”, the “Dysfunctional Government”, the “Economy”, “illegal”boats, and the list goes on.

Now Rudd can at least claim some credibility on his assertions, based on the fact that he has experience as a professional diplomat, as well as foreign Minister and PM, dealing with other countries governments on many levels.

And the truth is, he had them rattled, cos he was prepared to play the game their way, which PMJG was not.

For months prior to the leadership spill a recurrent theme through many comments on many blogs was that Julia needed to get a bit more “Mongrel” to deal with Abbott, and this from many of her supporters.

I was of the firm belief that she would have won the election regardless, and was so angry when the ALP voted her out.  But it was my wife, a great supporter of Julia, who was the voice of reason for me.

She let me rant for a while, and then calmly stated “It’s just politics!”   😯   And she was right.

The truth is that;

1. Unlike the rhetoric that the MSM and the LNP would have us believe, we don’t vote for our PM, we vote for our local candidate.
2. This is true for either party.
3. All party’s play their own version of internal politics, which in turn play a part in the election of the leader.
4. When a party win a majority of seats, the leader of that party becomes the PM.
5. If neither party wins an outright majority, then the leader that can negotiate successfully with the minor party’s and independents, gets to form government and then becomes PM ( As happened in this current term).
6. Party’s can and do change leaders if they can see political and or electoral advantage in  a change.
7. Whether we like Rudd or not, if you don’t like the idea of an Abbott led government, the only other real option is Rudd!

I didn’t like it when the “faceless men” of the ALP replaced Rudd with Gillard, and after three years of Julia Gillard as PM, I didn’t like it when she was replaced, essentially by the same “faceless men” that supported her in the first place.

But in the harsh light of reality, and with the sage words from my BH, I was able to see that “It’s just politics!”

And the one thing that I’ve known since I first gained a passion for politics and was reinforced this week, is that…

Politics is a dirty game!

The Dirtiest of them all! Be afraid, be very afraid!