Preferential voting in Australia is actually really cool. It lets you list the candidates on your ballot in the order of your preference.
So you can, for example, have The Fusion Party as number 1, The Greens as number 2, Labor as second last, and LNP as last, with any other candidates in between.
You are in control of who your vote goes to. The candidates and parties have no say in it at all.
Don’t let the media tell you otherwise.
@MsDropbear42@infosec.space@dgar In my druthers anyone not understanding basic civics like this should forfeit their voting rights. Democracy is wunnerful, apart from the morons. With the morons, we get warcriminal, madmonk, trumble, morriscum, & maybe even...
#AusPol #Greens #VoteGreens #ProgIndies #WeAreTotallyFscked #WeAreSelfishCruelBastards #Misanthropy #FsckOffDutton! #ShitParty1 #ShitParty2 #ComeOnTanya! #WhyIsLabor #NatsAreNuts #NoNukes #racism #FuckRacists #TuckFrump
@Tooden@aus.social@MsDropbear42 Hubby's thoughts exactly. However, education would be far preferable. If they cling to their numptiness even after being given the information, they would deserve being disenfranchised. @dgar
@MsDropbear42 @dgar No. If you deny people their voting rights for "good reasons", you will soon deny them for very bad reasons indeed.
The US history of vote suppression should teach us that.
@MsDropbear42@juergen_hubert @dgar Yep, the "thin end of the wedge" or "slippery slope" scenario, i know. But OMZ it's just so galling that so many choose to be so wilfully ignorant, & terrible outcomes ensue.
@MsDropbear42 @juergen_hubert
The media can be held at least partially responsible for this.
@MsDropbear42 @juergen_hubert @dgar
In theory, and especially if you randomise the order of the names on the ballot, those that don't know or care will be just be noise in the result that should self cancel.
The danger is that they all vote the same way as a result of some misinformation campaign.
@MsDropbear42@ocratato @juergen_hubert @dgar Ah but you see
The danger is that they all vote the same way as a result of some misinformation campaign
that is exactly what happens here. It's shocking, firstly coz idiotically we have no "truthful political ads" laws here, secondly coz the clueless selfish myopic credulous morons gulp up the orchestrated campaign lies, then vote accordingly. Gaaaaah.
@MsDropbear42 @juergen_hubert @dgar
While "truth in advertising" sounds like a good idea, it is probably a bit pointless in practice.
Can anyone imagine Trump's DOJ bringing charges against the GOP for electoral issues?
@MsDropbear42@ocratato @juergen_hubert @dgar That has little to do with us in Straya. Unlike magamoron Merka, we still have actual separation of courts from govt, and our judges have life tenure so are not subject to anything like the corrupt politicisation they are in SeppoLand.
@MsDropbear42 @juergen_hubert @dgar
While there may be some countries where the judiciary can investigate and lay charges, I am fairly sure that does not include Australia. We still require the police or someone delegated by the attorney general to actually bring a case before the courts.
A civil suit might be an option if you have very deep pockets and a lot of luck.
@MsDropbear42 @ocratato @juergen_hubert @dgar actually lifetime tenure for judges is part of the problem in the US, since they're appointed by the President. Through a combination of luck and manipulation, the Republicans have managed to install a right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court. And since the mechanisms for removing corrupt judges require 2/3 of an evenly divided legislature, it's basically impossible to do anything when they're e.g., known to be taking bribes.
@jtwcornell91 @MsDropbear42 @juergen_hubert @dgar
There was a time when a corrupt Justice would have been quickly impeached.
Then (approx Reagan) the GOP realised that they were on the losing end of demographics. They have been trying to stack things in their favour ever since.
The end state for GOP was always going to be a one party state, probably along fascist lines. However I think Trump came along sooner than they planned and now they have been thrown into a half baked takeover that they cannot stop and which they are terrified of not pulling off.
The GOP know that if the Trump experiment fails they will be unelectable for generations.
(If it succeeds they won't need elections.)
@ocratato @MsDropbear42 @juergen_hubert @dgar Robson Rotation ftw! One of the positive features of Tasmanian state elections.
That and not allowing political advertising within 100m of a polling place, hence no having to run the gauntlet of people thrusting how-to-vote cards at you.
@MsDropbear42 @juergen_hubert @dgar we need to fix that by denying them their ignorance, not their vote. And not just civics. Much bad voting comes from not understanding economics
@MsDropbear42@cliffordheath @juergen_hubert @dgar Yes, fine & noble in spirit, without doubt. Sadly, here's at least one of the practical problem scenarios, as a fable.
- RWNJ Oppo party/ies promulgate/s a litany of wilful lies about opponent parties [including govt] & Indies, with big-budget saturation ad campaigns
- RWNJ Oppo party/ies promulgate/s a suite of horrendously bad climate, biodiversity, habitat, social policies, greenwashed by odious lies, & lubricated by false claims of Jobs Jobs Jobs
- RWNJ media enthusiastically bigs-up all the RWNJ party/ies lies, & ruthlessly attacks all progressive parties & Indies
- clueless cretinous credulous Great Unwashed swallow all the MSM & RWNJ party lies, & votes said party into govt.
- said new govt sets about further destroying public education, taking up from all their desecration leftover from their last time in govt, & unfixed in the meanwhile by constant parliamentary blockages instigated by the RWNJs when they were in Oppo
- vicious circle ensues... c c c G U become ever more c c c G U coz of ever decreasing efficacy of their rudimentary public education, & don't bother looking up for more than five minutes at a time from their permanent diet of farcebuck, twatter, idiotgram, tut tut et al, so keep moronically voting for the RWNJ arseholes doing all this malignant misbehaviour
Happily, in time, this awful species is wiped out by an obliging asteroid, & the cockroaches live happily ever after.
The End.
@MsDropbear42 @juergen_hubert @dgar I don't think I'm talking to you, because you have obviously already given up
@cliffordheath @juergen_hubert @MsDropbear42
Dropbears are known to be pessimistic… 
@MarkDeasy@aus.social"Democracy counts heads, not what's in 'em."