Are the voters waking up?

[Alisoncc]

Reading about UK politics - what a mess with who's taking over the Tories, and Corbyn. US politics - what a mess with only choice Trump or Clinton, Australian politics - what a mess, one idiot in government who called an unwarranted election and now looks like ending up with a hung Parliament.

Austrian politics - what a mess, election for President, result thrown out by courts. Putin in Russia - seemingly unelected but running the country. Some moron in charge in the the Philippines telling everyone they can just kill drug addicts. I could go one, but .....

I am sure there are a lot more political disasters all around the world. But what the hell is happening? I have no recollection of any similar worldwide drama during my lifetime. Do I sense some impending cataclysmic event that it's all leading up to?

[Tom Joad]

Alison it's easy to think it's all going to hell in a hand cart at the moment but I think what we are seeing is a correction in the swing of the pendulum. Our politicians have just been given a bloodied nose and told to drop the nonsense and remember why they are there. It'll be interesting to see if they are listening and for how long.

Tom

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Well, I gave the whole shebang, i.e. the USA and EU as Unions in their current form, 25 years tops in the year 2000, and I stick by that. Anytime between next year and 2025 I reckon.
Go read Gibbon - this is the classic 'End of Empire' - lazy plebs dependent on handouts, the rich dodging taxes, ever-decreasing Armed Forces effectiveness, ever-less-efficient bloated bureaucracies, and migrant invasions (or unintegrated populations).
Same goes for the Persian Empire, the Ottoman, etc.
The difference this time is that, despite the Austrian Election, the Western plebs still have democracy, for a few more years. They have a much reduced ability to use it due to poor education (i.e. education in how politics and economics really work), and a massively biased MSM, but there's still a slim chance it can be rescued. It will require voting for candidates from new parties, or Independents, rather than any established party. That the Tories have Theresa May as the lead candidate, and Corbyn leading Labour from a different planet, shows there is little hope of the existing parties ever 'getting it'.
It makes naff all difference that the likes of us on these kind of forums have worked it out. We'll never get into established parties, be allowed to broadcast our views by the MSM, or be selected as Independent candidates by the average voter, who is still voting in large part for the party his/her dad did.
So, some older voters who still remember Korea and WW2, even the Cold War, have woken up - viz Brexit, but it does not, at the moment, look like enough have. We shall see. I'm not optimistic, and I'm an optimist.

[handsfree]

+1 Mr Banana

[Alisoncc]

Another example of the bloody mess must be mad Merkel making unilateral decisions that have impacted the whole of Europe. Inviting millions of refugees into the country - for God's sake.

I agree Tom, a massive correction of the pendulum. Also agreeing with Fox if one can portray Western democracies in the context of an empire, then Gibbon says it all. The biggest advantage of being 72 is that I don't have to give one scrap of concern about the future. Have little expectation of still being around in ten/fifteen years time, so what me worry.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

As Solon said, count no man happy until the end is known. Since I expect to be kicking around for another 40 years, I AM concerned. I'd like to die peacefully in my bed..or maybe by pistol shot in a bed I'm not supposed to be in
Are the EU Commissioners elected? Are we looking at Clinton II rather than Bush III? Are they above the Law? Do any of their lives have any connection with Joe Public? They are empires, functionally-speaking.

[Stoneboat]

Are we looking at Clinton II rather than Bush III

Assuming the Hildebeeste wins in November and runs for a second term, it never fails to amaze me that in a country of 330 million just two families will have dominated American politics for a total of 28 of the last 36 years. (12 years of Bushes and 16 of Clintons.) Of course we now have Airhead1 or Trudeau 2 - take your pick.

[Sisemen]

I think it's the disconnect between the political elites and the ordinary people.

The elites are largely from a university/law/social 'activist' background with no real experience of normal life. They also have this arrogance that their intellect is much, much better than any of us lot. This tends to be much more accentuated on the left whose disconnect with the 'workers' they are supposed to represent is much more marked. They've all stopped listening and, instead, tell us what we should be feeling and thinking.

The average voter however is concerned about his society being swamped by people who, not only don't share a common background, but actively work to overturn the system of the country in which they now sponge off. Those citizens in work also are getting mightily pissed off at more and more of their income is being creamed off to support the work-shy and the free-loaders and, at the same time, getting more angry at the shonky high end of town dodging their responsibilities.

Yep, we're in for a realignment - but what form is anyone's guess. Maybe the answer will come in the shape of weapons and death.

[Alisoncc]

The same voter rage that drives support for Donald Trump in the US and Brexit in the UK has taken hold here. Some of it is a perfectly rational response to a political system that is not working for the people it is designed to serve.

Quote from the ABC of all people in relation to our just-held election.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-03/election-2016-turnbull-and-shorten-have-plenty-to-worry-about/7565704