[csaa-forum] ALP 101=US 101?

[John Scannell]

I watched that 4 Corners program last night - and indeed Philip, I agree 
with your correlation and that program perhaps inspired some of my more 
flippant comments that appeared on the list today.
If you think about the Kerry/French thing - kind of also reminds me of 
Keating and his apparently 'European' aspirations Italian suits et al.- 
that's what pissed all the trad. blue collar workers off, and how we got 
to where we are now basically.
So yes - I think it was a very interesting comparison.

Philip Bagust wrote:

>I hope everyone was watching '4 Corners' last night (Monday) as it reviewed the
>mood of the American people as their election approaches.  I know Australia is
>not America, and that Kerry *might* just still win - but what struck me were
>the parallels that can be drawn between the mood of the electorate there and
>here - in particular how:
>
>1) (neo)conservative politics has so brilliantly captured, in both countries,
>the majority of what might have one been considered the natural Democrat/Labour
>'blue collar' constituencies.  
>2) the same political forces, regardless of their enormous wealth, have so
>successfully painted the progressive side of politics into an
>'elitist/chardonnay socialist' corner that it seems utterly incapable of
>extracting itself
>
>So many 'battlers' interviewed in that show really believed that Bush and
>Cheney were just 'regular beer swilling guys' whereas Kerry was seen as an
>effete, intellectual snob who had the temerity and lack of patriotism to marry
>a (gasp!) foreign billionaire.  Lets not kid ourselves that the same tendencies
>are not at work in 'middle Australia', whatever that is.
>
>At one time I would have rejoiced in the fact that in secular Australia, at
>least the enormous influence of the evangelical churches in politics in the US
>wasn't an issue here - but obviously with the success of Family First we can no
>longer take that for granted.
>
>At least we don't seem to have caught this bizarre 'anti-French' meme -
>although I'm waiting for that to surface too - hell anything seems possible
>now.
>
>Finally - is it time we revisited again that hoary old chestnut of compulsory
>voting in Australia?  Perhaps we should sop talking about people's 'democratic
>responsibilities' and start wondering about how motivated and informed someone
>is going to be if they feel compelled to vote when they fundamentally aren't
>interested in the 'big P' political process.
>
>I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts about the program.
>
>Phil
>
>
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