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The Disillusionist
Nov. 3rd, 2004 10:45 pmInteresting how the US election seems far more important than the Australian one... even to Australians.
Possibly because we're such a politically apathetic nation... a change of government 'round here affects nothing - not even petrol prices... we look to the east to see how the REAL movers & shakers do business - & the US election is BIG business - & wonder if it could ever happen here.
It could never happen here. This is a country where even a 'snap' election, with a campaign of only a few weeks, tries everyone's patience by polling day. A year long circus would leave the vast majority of Australian voters well & truly over it by February & come voting day in November, we'd probably be like most Americans & not bother to vote. The token fine would be a small price to pay...
And why does the US process have to be so damned complicated anyway, when it's people are so simple?? I can't imagine the Australian Supreme Court deciding who's going to be Prime Minister. And yet, it may happen, again, in the States...
In which case Bush will "win" again, Kerry will grow a fuzzy beard & go live in the backwoods with Al Gore & Mike Moore will make another film containing polarising propaganda & factual inconsistencies that are too easy to use against him by Republican spin doctors. In the wash up of this election, I don't think Fahrenheit 911 will have been seen as a help to the Democrats at all. It preached mainly to the converted in the US & only served to get the moral majority's back up... so out came the good ole boy publicists with the god & apple pie platitudes that are all that's required to placate the masses. Especially in a time of "war"... when the line of "If you're not for us, you're against us" is so easy to draw. If Vietnam was the first war fought on TV, then the "War on Terror" is the first war fought by marketers - especially political ones. And they decide what you see on TV now... no more "independent" indiscriminate footage of GIs burning villages, natives & whatever else was around, before getting the hell shot out of them by the VC... Now all you get to see is heroic images of 'our boys' liberating the oppressed Iraqis & tales of heroic men & women like Jessica Lynch. It seems that not even the revelations that the Lynch story was PR bullshit, nor the Abu Ghraib atrocities can dissuade the American people that what George W is doing must be God's work & anyone who gainsays that is unAmerican.
Do any of my fellow unAustralians see any parallels here??
Maybe it COULD happen here after all... be afraid... And if it's too late to hope for a Democrat victory (in the courts, most likely), then start praying for a Dallas Presidential motorcade... & for history to repeat itself - either with a magic bullet, or extra help from a grassy knoll.
After all, Dick Cheney's heart can't last forever...
The views & opinions expressed in the above are subject to change upon reflection & exposure to superior political argument. Authorised by WaitingMan, Charnel House, Sydney.
Possibly because we're such a politically apathetic nation... a change of government 'round here affects nothing - not even petrol prices... we look to the east to see how the REAL movers & shakers do business - & the US election is BIG business - & wonder if it could ever happen here.
It could never happen here. This is a country where even a 'snap' election, with a campaign of only a few weeks, tries everyone's patience by polling day. A year long circus would leave the vast majority of Australian voters well & truly over it by February & come voting day in November, we'd probably be like most Americans & not bother to vote. The token fine would be a small price to pay...
And why does the US process have to be so damned complicated anyway, when it's people are so simple?? I can't imagine the Australian Supreme Court deciding who's going to be Prime Minister. And yet, it may happen, again, in the States...
In which case Bush will "win" again, Kerry will grow a fuzzy beard & go live in the backwoods with Al Gore & Mike Moore will make another film containing polarising propaganda & factual inconsistencies that are too easy to use against him by Republican spin doctors. In the wash up of this election, I don't think Fahrenheit 911 will have been seen as a help to the Democrats at all. It preached mainly to the converted in the US & only served to get the moral majority's back up... so out came the good ole boy publicists with the god & apple pie platitudes that are all that's required to placate the masses. Especially in a time of "war"... when the line of "If you're not for us, you're against us" is so easy to draw. If Vietnam was the first war fought on TV, then the "War on Terror" is the first war fought by marketers - especially political ones. And they decide what you see on TV now... no more "independent" indiscriminate footage of GIs burning villages, natives & whatever else was around, before getting the hell shot out of them by the VC... Now all you get to see is heroic images of 'our boys' liberating the oppressed Iraqis & tales of heroic men & women like Jessica Lynch. It seems that not even the revelations that the Lynch story was PR bullshit, nor the Abu Ghraib atrocities can dissuade the American people that what George W is doing must be God's work & anyone who gainsays that is unAmerican.
Do any of my fellow unAustralians see any parallels here??
Maybe it COULD happen here after all... be afraid... And if it's too late to hope for a Democrat victory (in the courts, most likely), then start praying for a Dallas Presidential motorcade... & for history to repeat itself - either with a magic bullet, or extra help from a grassy knoll.
After all, Dick Cheney's heart can't last forever...
The views & opinions expressed in the above are subject to change upon reflection & exposure to superior political argument. Authorised by WaitingMan, Charnel House, Sydney.
