Something has gone badly wrong with the democratic process. Gooses cooked? Hope not, so Im opening this one up ... Margaret Arlen is right, were all worried and attempting to find an answer. David N. Pepperell is right in terms of Labors race to the bottom of the real politic and the desirability of Labor over Liberal (certainly Labor would not instigate anything like the assault that the Libs have unleashed). We need to find a solution for our problem or our collective geese are cooked, none of us doubt this. I think were maybe not asking the right questions. Ive had the germ of an idea, something thats conceptually simple, non-partisan, and might set a cat among the political pigeons. Its also something that can be discussed quite openly without compromising its strategy or anyone involved. However, at present its half-baked and I need help in nutting it out. Basically, its this: Engagement is the key, at the party level. The political process is controlled and guided by the power groups and factions that exist within the various politcial parties. None of the parties are immune. These groups are hidden from public view, in a real sense they are occult, yet are reliant on the party membership for their authority, the members votes, their numbers. The groups go to great lengths to control the membership in order to exert their influence on the political process, and this is not an easy thing for them, numbers are critically balanced, so much so that stacking is a necessity in many cases if a particular result is to be achieved. Their job is made easier because political party membership is ludicrously low - the combined membership of all political parties in Australia is less than the Collingwood Football Club. My hypothesis, surmise, is that if the memership of political parties could be increased by some comparatively small factor, two or three times, perhaps an order of magnitude, then the numbers games played by the factions would be sorely compromised, perhaps to the point of factional destruction. Any takers?
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 12:38:18 +0000
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