howard, our father

mood: fatalistic.
state i'm in: peroni nastro azzuro... mmmmm.
tune: josé feliciano "you send me".


pessimism is taking hold. as things stand right now, and in spite of the much publicised polls that have been conducted all year, i am predicting another win for the coalition, and a return to power of john howard as prime minister. the margin will more than likely be reduced, but will still be significant.

we may even see, as we have seen before, a primary vote of greater than 50% achieved by the ALP, but i still think the majority of voters in the outer suburbs, so-called 'working families', or 'aspirational austalians', or dwellers of the ever-suffering 'mortgage belt' heartland, or however you choose to refer to these lemmings, will return to their safe haven, with their overbearing 'father'.

you see, people like to run free and even complain about or badmouth their father. they'll gladly spend their days rebelling against his word. but when he calls sternly, they all come running back for their supper, regardless of how ill-conceived and mindless his actions toward them have been previously.

mr howard is the penultimate fatherly figure of this country, and like any older father figure, he is paternalistic, unfashionable and out of touch. people respond to this positively. they do not want their father to seem to be in touch. they do not want him to be academic. they do not want him to be tender and compassionate. they want him to blindly defend them and provide them with their daily bread, regardless of who suffers in the process. he need not be rational, just quick to spit out an authoritarian and dismissive comment so redirecting the family unit back onto a safe and steady orientation, ignorant of any danger that may be looming over the hill.

if we want compassion, we'll ask our mothers. we've got plenty of them - each and every state premier is a health, safety and education-focussed mother figure. she's a bit softer, and she cares about our safety. premier anna bligh's number one concern at the moment is to ensure we have adequate water to drink.

right now, mr howard is the one seeming like a father figure. kevin rudd is just seeming more like a mother, too nerdy and compassionate for the masses, and when it comes to providing an air of bravado and toughness, he seems vacuous.

it's a shame mainstream australia is so rooted in this pattern. for right now we need a leader with some rationality, with some compassion, some academic vigour, and some sensitivity. our place in the world, and each of our places in this world, could be served so much more suitably by having such a man and such a party at the helm.

i hope with great sincerity that my defeatism will not be vindicated - i don't want to be the boring guy on the night of the election that says "i knew that was going to happen". nevertheless, after 27 years in this country, i remain pessimistic.

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