Down Under…

…and upside down. Or so Australian politics seem from here. Not that the situation here is any better.  The Aussies have an election today, Saturday, May 21, and I’ve been working on a project with a man from Melbourne who has given me an ‘earful,’ though we’ve only communicated through the Internet.

While considering his political comments, I realized that there was a synchronicity involved with the country down under doing things politically in a somewhat topsy-turfy manner. For instance, listen to this: Australia’s conservative party is called the Liberal Party. What?

Beyond that oddity, if  my correspondent is correct, the country also has some extremely restrictive rules about who can run for office. For example, if you’re a teacher, forget it. You can’t run. In fact, one candidate, I was told, had raised $800,000 in campaign contributions only to find out she wasn’t eligible to run even though she had not been a teacher for 18 months. Apparently, she was getting a government pension and that disqualified her.

My correspondent, Mike,said he’s hoping for the best.  He noted that after some of the worst fires and floods ever to hit Australia, a new cohort of climate-conscious independents and moderate and left leaning  parties are threatening to shake up the federal election and could reshape the country’s political landscape.

However, he said the opposition is treacherous and the country is in deep trouble politically. “Your Jan. 6th incident looks like a picnic compared to what’s going on here.”

But Mike may not know the extent of the disfunction her  and theimpending atrocities that are awaiting us. It’s hard to imagine – yet true – that  one of our two parties is intent on overthrowing democracy and they’re not even hiding their efforts. If the Republicans don’t like the results of an election in states where they control the legislature and governorships,  they are set to game the system making it possible to overturn the results. It’s all about power, money and control. Definitely not about helping people.

Comments from down under are welcome.