I Have Become Thoroughly Disgusted with Our Politicians
Shôn Ellerton, May 14, 2025
I have little doubt that many of our young high-school class presidents would outperform our inept and spineless politicians given the chance.
It would be harsh for me to say that politicians are low-life scum, but there are moments such as the recently held Australian elections which took place during May 2025 that makes me feel this way.
Honestly, I think if we were to select a high-school student who was elected class president and place that person in the shoes of the Prime Minister, I doubt we would be much worse than what we have at the moment. I never underestimate some of the high levels of maturity the best of our high school students possess. They may not have attained enough wisdom or experience to satisfy the position of being a prime minister or a premier, but they, at least, have the curtesy to refrain from smearing the other side as excrement, which has been the most disappointing aspect of today’s politics.
I, for one, am thoroughly disgusted with the behaviour of modern-day political parties, which has become so pervasive in the western world. The leach-like ability to brainwash the people into their selfish and self-aggrandising way of thinking is both repugnant and corrupt to the core. Not only that, they treat the people with utter contempt gaslighting them to believe that ordinary people do not have the ability to make important decisions which affect the country.
Such a recent example may be that of the contentious 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum, which was put in place to amend the Australian Constitution to give indigenous peoples exceptional power in the making of national decisions. Naturally, this proposal was flawed insofar that there were no details as to how this would work and it was even more flawed due to the fact that this was racially divisive. By far, the majority of Australians are proud of their egalitarian views believing that no race should be superior against another. Not surprisingly, the referendum failed without question. The people did not want it, nor, I expect, never will want it, and yet, there are politicians on stage who are eager to try to reintroduce another referendum like this in the future.
Such wilful temerity indeed!
The problem, in general, is that most people are ignorant and stupid with regard to political affairs. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but rather, that the people are utterly malleable when it comes to be seduced by the lizard-like nature of self-serving and fickle-minded politicians. Making this worse is the uneven-like nature of Australia’s news media.
Our ABC news network is most decidedly left-leaning and is easily available on all free TV services. Whether you’re at home, at a hotel, or at work, ABC is easy to access. And yet, the more predominantly right-leaning Sky News Australia media is only accessible through pay TV services or through snippets on YouTube. Naturally, many more people will be watching ABC than Sky News Australia. Especially the older baby boomers who ingest most of their news from the box. ABC and Sky News Australia are both valid news sources but only when watched equally to achieve some sort of balanced perspective.
Another trait our politicians latch onto is the fact that all Australians must vote.
Voting is mandatory and, I believe, this causes a real issue. I always believe voting should be a privilege, and not something that all Australians must do legally. With this in mind, leach-like canvassers will stand at the doorway of polling stations on election day trying to entice voters not up-to-speed with their parties’ manifestoes by handing out brochures and spruiking that their respective parties will do this and do that. Seriously, it’s too late to make informed decisions by voters who have no care and no knowledge on who to vote for.
Think about this for a bit. Our nation’s future is in the hands of leaders who are voted in by a huge swathe of the population with little or no knowledge on what their parties will do once in power.
That’s damned scary, if you ask me.
And finally, I will come to what, I think, is the most repugnant and hypocritical nature of today’s political affairs.
Throughout the last several years, we have had legislation enacted and threatened upon us to limit our use of free speech through several initiatives hidden in the guise of protecting Australia from misinformation.
And yet, during election day, I walked up to my polling station in a southern suburb of Adelaide. There, in front of me, was a long line of dismal-looking black and orange posters taped to a chain-link fence denigrating a glum-faced Peter Dutton with the message that he will cut and you will pay. Just off to the right, were shiny bright-coloured posters showing a woman with a beaming smile for the sole purpose of convincing all those in their gaze to vote Labor in and her into the Senate.
Perhaps in some constituencies, the opposite holds true. I don’t know. But, how is this even legal in the first place?
It is just such hypocrisy with ultra bad form, behaviour best exhibited by children in playgrounds with temper tantrums and nasty intentions.
Indeed, I have seem far more mature and better-thinking seventeen-year-old high-school students than what we have with today’s greedy, gutless, fickle, and spineless politicians who relish smearing each other’s noses into the dirt rather than focussing on what the Australian people want.