awww shit

so it seems australian politics is far stupider than almost all had even imagined. gillard, who originally replaced rudd because of his terrible performance and lack of policy convictions, has now been replaced by rudd, (regardless of the fact that gillard really was getting the things done that he could or would not.) (and also nevermind the fact that we lost a whole host of good ministers like swan and combet in the process)

if you ever wanted proof of how poll driven and just plain stupid politics in this country has become this latest episode should probably suffice. not so long ago i complained at length about the fact that the media had consistently predicted a rudd comeback for nigh on 3 years at the expense of policy discussion and without credible sources outside of the anonymous rudd-supporter camp. well i guess i was dead wrong; if the media repeats something often enough and for long enough i guess it really will become the truth.

as pm gillard shifted to the right on a whole host of issues, most notably refugee policy, but nevertheless she was a zillion times better than rudd who could not even get it together to take action on emissions (something he was elected explicitly to do)

a common (and valid) criticism of tony abbott is that he holds no convictions on just about any issue. this same criticism is more or less valid when applied to rudd. in both rudd and abbott we see politicians whose primary concern is to see themselves be the top dog, not ppl who became politicians out of some vague idea of improving the nation/world. policy for these idiots is a means to an end rather than an end in itself.

gillard, in stark contrast, did hold personal convictions. gillard went in to politics IN SPITE of her kath-n-kim accent and her fucked up appearance. because probably in her comically-dated understanding of politics  the substance of a politician counted for something more than the trivial and superficial. lol, WRONG

to say that the media was unfair to gillard would be an understatement. the knee-jerk conservatives of the talkback radio ilk were rabidly anti-gillard from the get-go. again and again things like her appearance and whether she had a well-stocked fruit-bowl in her kitchen were the primary talking points in the national dialogue rather than policy. her father's death was used as a personal attack (by the leader of the opposition in question time no less) and she was asked questions ad nauseum about her private life that would never be asked of a male politician (much less PM). when she succeeded, for example, in getting states to agree to her overhaul of the education system, the news dutifully reported on the fact a child threw a sandwich at her.

despite pushing through quite a large amount of legislation, and with a hung parliament to boot, consumers of mass media were left with the impression gillard ran a lazy "do nothing" government. despite spending much much less than howard she was labelled as a reckless spender.

as ive mentioned gillard's biggest failing in my opinion was her willingness to be pulled further to the right. by doing so she ceded control of the asylum seeker issue to the liberals and alienated what could have been her most vocal support base. all the same, gillard has been the best prime minister this country has had in my lifetime, albeit an imperfect one.

i dont think there is a hope in hell that rudd will defeat abbott at the election. but then again, i didnt think ppl would be fucking stupid enough to bring him back so hey what do i know.

what i do know is that the next few years are probably a period that will come to be known in australian history as "the vindication of gillard". abbott will probably become the pm, and we'll go to hell in a handbasket, or else rudd will be pm again and we'll watch the labor party slowly transform into the liberals under howard before our eyes, in which case it's also hell via handbasket. already rudd is planning to water down the carbon tax in a misguided attempt to increase his popularity.

the fact that rudd has now replaced gillard is downright embarrassing. it also may represent more than anything else the moment at which australian politics finally became divorced from reality altogether. according to the polls, those lovely things that are demonstrably bullshit and that more than anything else may be responsible for this, rudd has increased labor's primary vote substantially. that's fucking dumb.

if you would vote for the labor party under rudd, but not under gillard, most likely you have no understanding of politics outside of party leader personality. because it's true; gillard did sound annoying and rudd does look like a keen nerd. supposing this is your entire voting rationale then i can kind if understand it.

if rudd wins the election for labor then these sorry last few days will at least have some limited good come out of them. but i doubt it. in my opinion probably all we've seen is some irreparable damage done to the labor party and australian democracy at the cost of an abbott government. niice.

when rudd was deposed he cried like a bitch, when gillard was booted out she stood there and rattled off what she was proud to have achieved and what still needed to be done. 'NUFF SAID