Swingers

As you all know, John howard once again became prime minister. Everywhere I go, people are like what? How did this happen? Most people that I speak to say that they didn't vote liberal. But the thing is, someone must have voted for him, cause he won by a landslide!. He actually won more seats for the government than last time.

To be honest, I really don't care too much about last weekend's voting. When I went to the polling booths on saturday, I had no idea who I would vote for. I seriously was thinking about voting Greens/Liberal/Labour/Democrats/Christian Democratic Party. Simply put, I don't think my vote counts that much and I deliberately avoid reading about state/federal politcs in the newspaper.

I'm really one of those swing voters and as I was running through the gauntlet (walking up the footpath to the polling booth where they shove how to vote cards in your face) I decided to vote labour. My logic was, I'm working class (I don't consider myself upperclass), live in the Bankstown area, and don't like the fact that Howard lied about the whole iraq affair. But then I thought what about the status quo? I like the way things are, the economy is in good shape, and that Howard's more experienced.

Ultimately, my final vote for the election (the green paper) was:
1. Labour
2. Liberal
3. Greens
4. Christian Democratic Party
5. Family first
6. Democrats
7. One nation

By the way is it wrong to ask someone how they are gonna vote? I was waiting in line, and I turned around and asked the people behind me who they were voting for. They had this look on their face of shock, as if they had seen as ghost. I'm not sure if they were shocked by my question or the fact that my new hat was too big. Somehow I think it was the former.

Also, do the people that handout these votecards think about who they are handing these things out too? My grandma takes every single leaftlet because she thinks its necessary, and a One Nation supporter handed one to her. If you didn't know my grandma, here is a brief demographic: she's Chinese, aged 80, has no idea about politics and doesn't read english. She takes it, and then I start laughing. Then this interesting exchange happened:

Labour supporter nearby handing out votecards: Mate, you know who they are right?
Me: Yeah I know
Labour supporter: They are trying to kick you out of the country
Me: (laughs) Yeah I know
Labour supporter: Remember Howard tried to do it in '85. Vote labour!
Me: (still laughing my head off).

The moral of the story is, know your audience. Don't be wasting One Nation leaftlets on Asian voters. You dont have to be Einstein to work out that its a waste of paper.