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Add page to: Add page to: An Australian politician recently stood deliving a speech or campaign - or something (I heard second hand) adored with a banner, "Mainstream Values". I'm a little intrigued to know what this means.
Mr Bush must know (and yes, I mean George W) because he often uses the same terminology in many of his speeches - if you don't want to believe me, just Google the phrase.
Me, I'm not quite so sure. To me flaunting a banner that says "Mainstream Values" kind of implies that the Government are totally going to disregard anything they don't see as mainstream and blatantly discriminate against anyone they don't see as being mainstream. And here they are telling us this up front without any apology. Do they think we won't notice? Won't care? Perhaps they think we'll embrace this "assimilate to the borg"/"brave new world" philosophy. Do they think we won't care if our friends or family that are not quite mainstream are discriminated against and disregarded? Who knows? I really don't even know what 'mainstream values' are, but the implications that readily come to mind when I hear the term make me shudder.
I've been doing a random pop over the last few days, saying to people of my aquaintance who crossed my path, "So, if I was a politican and said my platform was 'mainstream values' what would you think?" - Initially the most common answer was that they'd think I was a tosser. (The descriptors varied slightly but the implication was the same). The intial respondees when I quizzed them further had no real idea of what I'd mean by mainstream values. The next set of respondees pretty much said that they thought I might be racist or would want to bring Christian values to the masses - things like that. The term is possibly just a term constructed to trick people into thinking they know what you mean when you don't mean anything - each word on its own means something but when you put them together they seem to become very elusive. I'm not sure. I'll continue to pop-quiz and ask people about this term. I'm intrigued.
Really, I don't care who said it, or which party they represent. I'm not anti any particular party per se - I'm a swinging voter and on policy not party name. It seems like the sensible thing to do to me. One year it might be one party, next year another - and another year, well, maybe it'll be another party entirely rather than one of the two major parties - wouldn't that cause a shake-up?
Voting for someone just because they are representing themselves under a particular party name eg. 'Liberal', 'Labour', 'Democrats', 'Greens', 'First Nation', 'National Action' to me seems about as sensible as voting for someone or a party based on the colours they are wearing on the day. Each party evolves - or regresses - and at the very least changes from year to year so the "same" party four, eight, twelve or fifty years ago is not the "same" party that it is today. Really. And I think I could fairly say that's not just my opinion, it's a widely held point of view, verging on fact. More horrifyingly, I've heard some people vote for a particular party just because their parents did... they didn't even bother giving it a minute of thought. I have no idea what my parents political persuasions are, I could probably hazard a guess, but I could never be sure as they've never pushed it down my throat. Crazy folks that they are, they even let me make up my own mind about what religion, if any, I wanted to follow.
It's policy that tells us what they plan to get up to if they get in and it's that policy, that if it comes in to effect, affects our daily lives. It's not the name of the party. And those campaign ad's that tell us how bad the other side is? My theory is that they're there to appeal to the stupid and lazy folks. They're simply a way for a party to stand up and say what their policies are and win on merit - much easier to bad mouth the other side and hope for the best. Yeah. Right. But sadly, it seems to work.
I heard it alleged that in America any president who is in office at the time of a major crisis - even one that they were responsible for - is likely to get back into office. Even one that they are responsible for? Crazy. It seems people will do anything to avoid change after a crisis, even a change for the better.
Anyway, with state elections coming up, it's time to hit the party websites and see actually what policies they are using in their campaign. And perhaps to investigate further what exactly 'mainstream values' means. Surely the party with the best policies (in your opinion) and a track record for tying to bring those policies into being is still going to be the one that gets your vote.