Who thinks we are being treated like idiots?

Question

I used to be a Labour supporter many years ago, but I am amazed at how many people are so convinced that Kevin Rudd will be their vote because he says he will do a better job and gives us sayings more often in beer commercials.

Who thinks that we are being treated like fools by being continuously sold phrases like "Education Revolution", but don't seem to think we need to know how they are going to do it?

Every time Mr Rudd has opportunity to outline policy he gives us the usual line about Mr Howard "promising record low interest rates", but when it suits him says that interest rates are based on international influence.

I am so sick of it. I think Mr Rudd should explain how he is going to make interest rates go back down. If he can't I think he should stop treating us like idiots.

What do you think? Are we about to vote a party in who could actually win Government without EVER outlining a policy?

Answer 1

Amanda - so you think Mr Howard is not treating you like an idiot throwing all that money around?
Also, when was the Workchoices policy outlined last election? oh yeah...it wasnt.
Rudd has never said he would be able to make interest rates go down - it would be foolhardy of him to - the RBA sets the rates - the governments monetary policy is there to control inflation. Clearly the Howard Govt has not managed that well. And with all the money being thrown around by Howard - you can look forward to many more interest rate rises should he retain government.
Howard treated everyone like idiots last election when he said he could keep interest rates low.
oh btw - I doubt you where ever a Labor supporter.

Answer 2

Is that all you hear from him because you only hear him in severely edited few second snatches on the news or on election TV ads?
Well, maybe you should actually read some of the policy proposals for yourself - here they all are at your fingertips:
http://www.alp.org.au/policy/index.php

It's the voter's obligation to make a fully informed decision. You can't be entirely passive, only watch a few TV snippets and then say "he never outlines a policy" - that's absurd. If you expect to be informed, you have to make an effort and not treat YOURSELF like an idiot! :)

You should also watch shows like Lateline on the ABC, etc, for interviews where the pollies are given time to explain and debate their policies, not just forced to quickly advertise them.

Edit - Mr Rudd, well in fact Mr Swan (ALP treasurer), have explained numerous times how to keep interest rates down. The RBA have been warning Howard for years about the skills shortage and associated inflationary pressures which put pressure on interest rates. Mr Swan is listening to the RBA and has explained boosting our productive capacity through education and training to redress the problem. For more, read their policies :)

Edit - in response to jareth... and Alex. Sorry if I did not make my main point clear enough. I'm not saying everyone should be expected to inform themselves to the hilt for an election... What I AM MAINLY saying is that the asker of this question can't accuse them of not having or not outlining their policies when she hasn't made an effort to look 'em up.

Edit - I'm not involved or affiliated with any political party or organisation. And I do agree with compulsory voting and the democratic obligation of being informed.

Answer 3

OH FOR GODSAKE .....

something tells me that the stable of anti-labor posters are actually just ONE PONY ..

why is it that nine out of ten questions asking negative questions against Labor KEEP MAKING THE SAME SPELLING MISTAKE ..

I mean take a LOOK at this one .. :
"I used to be a Labour supporter many years ago"

well you think if they EVER HAD of been a Labor Party supporter ... they would have KNOWN how to have spelt the word ....

Now it isn't the spelling as such that I am attacking... but More so MAKING the suggestion that all these PRO-HOWARD people coming out of the woodwork suddenly .... are actually One panicking Lil' Voter .. or perhaps a couple...just trying to scare-monger some votes ...

EDIT .. .and the points they make ...

"Who thinks we are being treated like idiots?"

well hell yeah of course I do ..
you tell me amanda .. where are the WMD ?
Why did howard tell us children were being thtown overboard
Why did Howard say he's NEVER bring in the GST
Why did Howard Lie about what he knew re the AWB ?

yep I sure as hell do feel we are being treated like fools and THIS is why I will be helping to vote the proven LIAR and OPPORTUNIST out of power....
Libs HAVE lied to us ONE too many times.


EDIT# 2 also just check out how old some of these ANTI-LABOR posters ( both questions and answers) ID's are ...
check out if they have actually answered or asked ANY other type of Q's

as Klink would say in Hogan's Hero's VERY INTERESTING ...

(It's just SUCH a Howard's Liberal Party Kinda Tactic ain't it just ???)

Answer 4

Have you seen the Liberal outline a policy in 11 years, OH thats right they outlined how they would "never ever" bring the GST and did, also how they would keep Interest rates at "record lows" and didn't, how this country must go and find Weopans of Mass Destruction and there aren't any, furthermore how they never mentioned Workchoices before the last election then brought it in immediately.

What policies has Howard outlined, I have seen many advertisements from the Liberal Party about the Labor Party but nothing on their own policies!

11 years of being in government and he hasn't achieved enough to even advertise what he has done for the country!! He has to (again) resort to scare and misleading tactics!!

Surely you haven' fallen for the Liberal TV adds?

Answer 5

In response to jarethscrystalball

I see your point, but I think the point that miss schlonky was trying to make is that as a voter in a democratic system where voting is compulsory, we are obliged to be as informed as possible when we make our votes on election day. Now whether or not this is a realistic expectation is not the point (personally, it's something I agree very strongly with). If democracy is about expressing our views so that the majority wins, what happens when a large chuck of those views are not genuine, i.e. only reflect an uninformed decision? The question is whether or not such a view should really be considered valid in such a system - I certainly think not. When people make such uninformed decisions on a large scale, they are potentially voting someone in, on the presumption that the party expresses their political views and opinions, without actually knowing a) that they really do represent their views overall (lack of policy knowledge) and b) that there is not another party that better represents their views, which in terms of the ideals of the democratic voting process SHOULD be the party getting the uninformed person's vote.

You could compare this situation to the military take-over in Japan, or the Nazis in Germany. These terrible groups were able to take over largely due to the politically apathetic, who were un-bothered by the importance of being politically aware. Not being fully informed of the intentions of these groups, they either supported or ignored them, allowing the Nazi's and Japanese military's more radical supporters (the only ones who generally were truely informed) to pretty much dominate the democratic process. As a note, I realize that I have simplified the process of these take-over's considerably, and although there WERE many other major factors in the Nazi and JM take-overs, political ignorance and passive acceptance were very major factors. In this sense, it is arguable (and IS argued by quite a number of historians) that the main responsibility for the take-overs of these extreme groups lies with those who made uninformed political decisions, or failed to act due to being "unbothered" by politics, because - the way I see it - those people were obliged by the very concept of the democratic process to be aware of what and who they were supporting (or choosing to ignore). Now, let me emphasize that I'm not trying to compare our political situation with that of Weimar Germany or Taisho Japan, but I hope that my example at least explains (in a fairly simplified and extreme way) why I think that being politically uninformed of apathetic is simply unacceptable in a system where it is compulsory to vote. This is why I believe your argument that a politically uninformed vote is acceptable just can't be right.

Edit: Whether or not this means people should be obliged to be politically aware, or whether or not we should move towards a non-compulsory democratic voting model, I don't really know - forgive me for not being sure of a solution.

Edit: in response to miss schlonky's response (heh), thanks for clarifying, but still, I stand by what I said. I think this is just a specific example of the overall problem. Are you perchance involved with GetUp? A lot of your involvement on this site that I've just looked through certainly seems to suggest so.

Answer 6

I used to be liberal supporter 11 years but I am amazed at how many people are blind like me for long time but still not open the big eyes to see they treated us like Idiots ,we can ask ourself did liberal tell us about IR law was applied when they elected in 2004 , lead us to Iraq war with dishonnest invassion for oils , keep interest rate low but it went opppsite and They said out of their hands But why USA federal can cuts two times interest down in a year to back up their mortgage woe If I have a chance to came back to the past I will never vote wrong like that and the thing never felt sorrow for until now, At the moment i have the chance to repaid my guilty. I have to vote for Kevin07 for repaid my mistakes before

Answer 7

In response to Ms Schlonk - it's up to the individual how well informed or educated they want to be when it comes to voting. Not everyone wants to be involved or has a deep interest. Lets face it - not everyone will make an informed decision.
Keep in mind aswell that the television advertisments are designed to sway our vote. They are designed to point out as many flaws in the opposing parties as possible in order to scare you away from them. Again, it's up to the individual how educated they want to be and how much notice they'll take.

Answer 8

The problem with a lot of people is that they only start taking notice 5 minutes after an election is called, do some research before hand you might learn something

Answer 9

People with advocates will always be treated like fools by rivals, critics and oppositors. Politics is a dirty aspect of the society and expect people to have criticisms.

Answer 10

Being informed is strictly the voter's.