THE DELUSION OF DEMOCRACY - PART 2
The impact of these issues casts a shadow over the
entire life of a victim, from childhood and education to adulthood and
employment. Some remain tidally locked in the role of victim, easily identified
and targeted by those who were raised as bullies or otherwise transition to the
role of predators. And in too many cases, those predators move into the police
or public services where they are supposed to help victims… but instead misuse
their authority to inflict further harm.
A regular Joe Citizen
named Eric Fish posted a comment about this situation, stating “A country will
never rise beyond the level of its leadership. It is our leaders that set the
capping stone for how far we will grow. This issue goes way beyond the
hypocrisy of our Deputy Prime Minister. The time has come for a clean up on
both sides of the government. Why should we, the people of this country be
subject to incompetence and mudslinging.” And he was absolutely spot-on.
Every day we hear about horrible things like people being killed and injured by self-centred arseholes who go out drinking or using drugs and then attack people in the victim’s home, in the streets, or in the hospitals, or who drive their cars into others and then run away, or about nursing homes where the disabled and elderly are being abused and mistreated, or about police and other public servants who go online with fake profiles to make vile posts, or about police and other public servants who refuse to help victims of child abuse and domestic violence, and we are stunned it is happening. Like it’s abnormal.
And those are just the reports the media knows about and bothers to publish. We shake our collective heads in dismay and ask why it happens, why there is no real regulation or action to prevent it, to stop it, to prosecute those at fault. We ask why predators are able to get away with things for decades when victims tried to get help but were silenced, and now there are more victims because the predators just kept doing what they do and even escalated. We ask why nothing changes.
And at the heart of this, too often, is financial
stress, made all the worse if that person or their parent is accused of
fraudulently claiming welfare. Even if an accusation isn’t true, they are sent
a robo-debt letter demanding repayment and threatening legal penalties. The
majority of these alleged debts have been proven false but victims must pay-up
before the investigation has been completed. The LNP is demanding money with
menace and committing extortion and theft. But Barnaby and his mistress? They
get off on technicalities and keep hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars
for their efforts.
The mistress wasn’t listed as his partner, so he
didn’t technically violate the nepotism laws. “Suck it!” Barnaby may as well
say. “She’s my mistress, not my wife!” As if this is somehow a good thing, that
it isn’t immoral. Sure, they share a house together, fornicate and are having a
baby, but the mistress is not officially listed as his partner. Then there’s
the rent-free palace. The “he asked”, “he offered” claims don’t pass the pub
test, and the technicality excuse there is just as unhinged.
The owner says Barnaby asked to stay there. Barnaby
says it was offered to him. When he was not a sitting member. During the New
England By Election. He was only, technically, endorsed to run for the seat,
not actually an elected Member of Parliament. So he was living, rent free, in a
palatial property owned by a multi-millionaire LNP donner who was trying to get
government approval on projects to make more money, and the LNP still endorsed
this idiot?!
But, as day ten passed, and the news cycle stubbornly
refused to move on an enable Barnaby and his ilk, rhetoric from other
politicians began to shift. Barnaby was no longer driving the bus over his wife
and kids, the voters, Christian and LNP Conservative ideologies, but was under
it, with a great many of his former supporters now taking turns at the wheel,
their colours no longer on the outside of their coats but on the inside as
self-preservation began to kick in while morality continued to remain absent.
Now, after their ferocious efforts to back him,
Turnbull has found the backers to conduct an awesome
act of political gymnastics - multiple back-flip-flopping with one foot in his
mouth and his head in his arse while shaking a fist at all Barnaby critics and
offering Barnaby an open hand that also bitch slaps him... and all without a
spine. Barnaby was a canary. The LNP was trying to determine if the voters
would allow them to get away with the kind of twisted behaviour of right-wing
politicians in the US.
Turnbull and his
faction never really hitched their wagon to Barnaby at all. They did the math.
The cost in votes could see them lose power in the next election, but the
empty, impotent threats of the National Party to end the coalition would see
the Nationals reduced to a small faction under an ALP government contending
with One Nation and the Liberal Democrats whose ranks would swell with disaffected
LNP voters. It was an act of political bastardry that almost eclipsed, well,
what Barnaby has spawned.
And, now, the public awaits in this oh so very real pregnant pause. Barnaby, unwilling or incapable of seeing just how poorly he has behaved, has leashed his entire Party to serving his cause to retain his rank and privileges. The Nationals, so-called champions of Country, Conservative and Christian values, had (at that time) decided to back this hypocrite and allow him to continue leading them in a very clear obvious demonstration of what happens when people lose their way.
Barnaby claims to be a Catholic. As does Tony Abbott, who also supports Barnaby. George Christiansen, another so-called Christian, then revealed just how idiotic some of these simpletons can get by posting a picture of himself firing a pistol with a caption clearly threatening political rivals… during the news focus on Barnaby’s immoral and possibly illegal activities… in the wake of the latest school shooting in the US that claimed seventeen lives, including that of a fourteen-year-old girl.
And, now, the public awaits in this oh so very real pregnant pause. Barnaby, unwilling or incapable of seeing just how poorly he has behaved, has leashed his entire Party to serving his cause to retain his rank and privileges. The Nationals, so-called champions of Country, Conservative and Christian values, had (at that time) decided to back this hypocrite and allow him to continue leading them in a very clear obvious demonstration of what happens when people lose their way.
Barnaby claims to be a Catholic. As does Tony Abbott, who also supports Barnaby. George Christiansen, another so-called Christian, then revealed just how idiotic some of these simpletons can get by posting a picture of himself firing a pistol with a caption clearly threatening political rivals… during the news focus on Barnaby’s immoral and possibly illegal activities… in the wake of the latest school shooting in the US that claimed seventeen lives, including that of a fourteen-year-old girl.
Christensen, never
the brightest marsh-light in the swamp, defended his post, claiming it was
based on a reference to a Dirty Harry movie, as if that excused his most recent
act of idiotic behaviour. If he had bothered to watch the movie, he would have
realised Eastwood’s character was someone who enforced the law to protect
people from self-centred predators that adopted an attitude of ‘might makes
right’ to justify inflicting themselves on others to get what they want. The
irony would be lost on him.
Meanwhile, Barnaby
was still lashing out, dividing the LNP against itself to serve his own twisted
agenda, incapable of understanding what he had done, and continued to do, was
wrong. His public ‘apology’ to his family, Party, and everyone else, went from
being insincere and motivated by a desire to push the narrative that everything
he did in the office of political representative, champion of Conservative
Christian ideologies, leader of the National Party, and Deputy PM, was a
private matter and no business of the media, public or anyone else… to
something even more unhinged.
Following Turnbull’s
sudden realisation that the public, including (no surprises here) LNP
supporters, would not simply accept this vile behaviour, but respond by voting
for other political parties, he gave Barnaby a public dressing down. Even
Pauline Hanson had suggested it was his only course of action. When Hanson is
the voice of reason, you really know you’ve lost your way. Nothing Turnbull
said in that public address was inaccurate. The majority of the public were in
complete agreement.
But Barnaby… well, he
decided that it was all lies, all wrong, stated (in a very clear act of
projection) that Turnbull was inept, and that he – Barnaby – was the clear
victim in the whole sorry situation. Soon after, on the advice of a media
advisor (most likely his mistress) by all appearances, Barnaby tried to change
the focus again, claiming people were now attacking the unborn baby, treating
it as if it were something less than other children. It was a particularly vile
act… on the part of Barnaby and his mistress.
As if their behaviour
wasn’t reprehensible enough, they used their unborn child as a shield against media
and public criticism, and a weapon to get what they wanted. And evidence of
ineptitude could be observed, by anyone willing to look, throughout Barnaby’s
political career. Turnbull had only ever demonstrated self-absorbed ambition
and complete contempt for those who got in his way or complained about the
Human Rights violations he happily inflicted in the pursuit of getting what he
wanted. Morally bankrupt, incompetent, and maybe corrupt, yes, but not inept.
And now we are all in
limbo. Barnaby has been convinced to take leave. If only someone could get him
to shut-up. One can only hope that Federal politics includes good quality,
professional mental services staff on the payroll, and that both Barnaby and
his mistress have been referred to these people for help with the problems both
have demonstrated – and not just unflinching devotion to right-wing extremism. On
the plus side, Barnaby will not be serving as acting PM while Turnbull is out
of the country…
… That job will now fall
to Mathius Cormann. Loyal to Turnbull. With an accent that reminds us of
Germany during the Second World War. Not a good look given the perception of the
LNP being a bunch of jack-booted, racist thugs violating the Human Rights of
refugees, the unemployed, the disabled, the gay community, and anybody else not
them or their sycophants. Regardless of the efforts to make him appear to be a
decent human being, and despite being a welcome change from Barnaby, Cormann is
still unable to grasp the simple reality that the LNP’s twisted ideologies
inflict on the less fortunate.
But how did we get
here? How did we get to the point where corruption, incompetence, and absolute
hypocrisy can not only be conducted in public office, but that other
politicians will happily, aggressively support someone who violates the very
ideologies their Party claims to represent? How can they do it against a
background of ‘Me Too’, ‘Times Up’, Marriage Equality, and anti-Domestic
Violence actions? How can behaviour that violates opportunistic political
rhetoric supporting ‘Me Too’, ‘Times Up’, and
actions opposing Domestic
Violence and Child Abuse not only be tolerated, but excused, justified, and
forced upon an unwilling and angry public?
The answer can be
found in related questions. Why is it that racists, homophobes, misogynists,
child abusers, Domestic Violence abusers, gun-nuts, narcissists, and the
generally unhinged and uneducated flock to right wing political ideologies? It
seems to be a bit of a conflict of interest really. All the efforts to identify
these social problems and mental health issues behind them in order to solve
them and make the world a better place… and these things form the very
foundation of right-wing political support.
Every day we hear about horrible things like people being killed and injured by self-centred arseholes who go out drinking or using drugs and then attack people in the victim’s home, in the streets, or in the hospitals, or who drive their cars into others and then run away, or about nursing homes where the disabled and elderly are being abused and mistreated, or about police and other public servants who go online with fake profiles to make vile posts, or about police and other public servants who refuse to help victims of child abuse and domestic violence, and we are stunned it is happening. Like it’s abnormal.
And those are just the reports the media knows about and bothers to publish. We shake our collective heads in dismay and ask why it happens, why there is no real regulation or action to prevent it, to stop it, to prosecute those at fault. We ask why predators are able to get away with things for decades when victims tried to get help but were silenced, and now there are more victims because the predators just kept doing what they do and even escalated. We ask why nothing changes.
If we do nothing,
then nothing changes. That’s why. But what can we do when the people at the
top, our so-called political representatives, are part of the problem? When too
many politicians, police and public servants either refuse to do what is right,
what is needed, or when they are the very predators and morally bankrupt
elements of our society. Stop and think about it. Why would someone like
Barnaby Joyce want to put in place laws and rules, or amend the ones filled
with loopholes, that prevent him from doing what he does?
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