My Confession

I just have to get this off my chest as it just kills me every time I go on FB.  You know me and my political history. You know that I have quite progressive values on a lot of issues, you know I love riding my bike, I would love to see live trade closed down, I think that everyone should be able to marry whoever they want, I love the tapestry of our multi-culti society and everyone should get down and get funky etc etc…

But my views on politics have changed over the last few years.  I’ve voted for Labor my whole adult life up to and including Kevin 07.  The glory days of Hawke/Keating were to me the pinnacle of politics in this country.  And we all lived through the years of the Howard Terror.

But about halfway through the 1^st Rudd Prime Ministership I began to feel that they had lost their way, for many reasons.  So much so that by the time of the 2010 election I voted for the Coalition for the first time in my life.  I voted for them again last year.  I spent the last 3 years of the Gillard/Rudd government with my fists and jaws clenched waiting for the end of the Labor government. 

Now I don’t want to argue every point of policy with every Green Lefty on FB I know which is nearly everyone.  Really it’s a waste of time without a beer and the ability to say things with a cheeky grin and twinkle in the eye face to face.

What distresses me is that coming from the milieu that I inhabit, I feel constrained in saying what I really think.  There seems to be an illiberal attitude towards those with differing political views.  I feel that if I say anything I will be howled down by those who can’t envisage that any right thinking person could possibly hold those views.  The implication is that one could not possibly vote for the Coalition without being a right-wing, teaparty, neo-con, bogan, Murdoch zombie.  And I’m also appalled by the level of bile, spite and vitriol on FB directed towards Tony Abbott.  For god’s sake he’s just a human being, not the devil incarnate.

Hence my distress and my tiny little hand grenades that I throw into posts now and then.  I just don’t feel that I can say what I really think without being held in contempt by people who I like and respect.