two-pot screamer dot com

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Re:If it’s such a problem… (Score:4, Informative)
by dbIII (701233) on Monday May 09, @06:18AM (#12475348)

Why do you guys keep electing the people that pass this stuff?

It was complicated, but here’s a summary: First there were the poeple that were called queue jumpers who didn’t go through the proper channels of the legitimate Afganistan government to get to Australia, the government stirred up a lot of feeling. Then when 911 happened these aforementioned refugees fleeing the Taliban were named as potential terrorist pretending to be refugees so they could come to Australia and wreak havoc - millions were spent stopping them coming ashore. This and other teflon moments happened - popularism backed up by creating a culture of fear. Another stunt was to get as many people as possible to borrow to buy property and then say that the other guys would raise intrest rates (which happened anyway without the other guys getting in). The Australian economy is booming - due to borrowing overseas to build lots of houses. The USA experienced several boom-bust cycles in exactly the same way in the 1800s.

Sadly, redneck politics works so long as you can point to a minority that people don’t think much of - and locking them up for years on a flimsy pretext wins votes, even if you accidentally lock up a blond haired blue eyed locally born Qantas hostess as an illegal immigrant for months by mistake, or deport one of your own citizens by mistake! It’s not really about racism, or even being authoritarian - it’s about getting votes and general incompentance.

I had a flatmate who voted for the party that were going to put him out of a job (abolish his government department), and he knew it - popularism is powerful.

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