Campaign Promises and voter awareness.

Politics and Social Issues
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Until 2003, I had belonged to The Australia Labor Party for over 25 years. I left because I was unable to support the Yobbo the party made leader; Mark Latham. I was right; he helped the Labor Party snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Things have become worse in the last ten years; Australia has had six Prime Ministers, as the result of internal party power struggles.

Since 2003, I have voted for the least offensive bunch of venal incompetents on offer. Like many Aussies I have developed a healthy contempt for politicians as a species.

There is a Federal election on 18 May. God(s) preserve us; both major parties seem quite stunningly incompetent. That means I will vote for neither of them. Instead, I will vote independent or possibly one of the minor parties. The minor parties (Greens especially) will pick up seats, and may control the balance of power. This tends to happens when the Australian electorate are fed up with both major parties.

In the thread title I mentioned campaign promises. I have learned that as a category of promise, the campaign promise is like a verbal contract; not worth the paper it’s written on.

I watched the US Obama presidential campaign with fascination. Saw a couple of speeches made by Obama. Impression: brilliant orator and consummate politician. I thought he’d probably get elected and that he would be a competent, but mediocre president. He lost me when he promised that the first thing he would do would be to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. That didn’t happen, and, imo, a competent politician should have been aware that it would not happen. So, he was lying, incompetent or misinformed.

It seems to me Obama’s historical importance is of the precedent of a Black President. In that sense, his importance cannot be overestimated in a country still dominated by race. But, I’m only an ignorant foreigner, what do I know.

Then along came Donald Trump and his wall. The man seems to a be a pathological liar ,with the human skills of a carrot. More importantly , his presidency seems to have revealed the moral bankruptcy of elected Republicans. They choose to keep their own personal power rather than remove an embarrassing buffoon.–and yes, the Republicans CAN impeach him if they want to; it is congress which defines the wrong doing of a president, it is not clearly defined by statute.

Looking at the incumbent political administrations of the US, UK and Australia, I can’t help but think there is some truth in the adage " a country gets the government it deserves"

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Lots of nice points I would like to respond to. 1st, you insult carrots to say they have similar “human skills” to Trump. Carrots are surely superior to Trump in every way, except color. They are both orange.

I love Obama, probably because I was an activist for him from the very beginning in '08, at a time when Hillary was still thought to be the presumptive Dem candidate. I sincerely believed in him and was, of course, also proud that we elected our 1st black President. I think that he seriously misjudged that he would be able to work with the Repubs, at least some. But there was an unequivocal and openly reported plan by the Repubs to oppose EVERYTHING Obama thru out his Presidency. Still he naively kept trying for bipartisan cooperation for much too long.

Also, in retrospect, I think that the pride I felt at having our 1st black President was matched by a long suppressed or repressed racism in many more white Americans than I would have thought possible. So ironically, having the 1st black President, seems to me, to have elicited or called up, the very racism that we naively thought (for awhile) that we were overcoming.

Trump has iron control over the Repub Congressmen, because Trump has a 90% approval rate with the Repub voting base. That means that in the Repub Primaries, Trump could easily have any congressmen primaried, i.e., have them lose their seat by promoting someone else that he chooses. So if they want to continue to be in Congress, they must follow his will. Thus there is almost no chance that Trump can be impeached, no matter how guilty facts show him to be for any crime. Because it would take 20 Senators voting with all of the Dems, to impeach and remove him from office.

The Aussie multi party system and voting rules is probably superior to our, 2 party system. Also, u probably don’t have election cycles that go on for the better part of 2 yrs. Tho our Liar in Chief has never stopped campaigning with his base, since he took office.

Trump has blown thru any semblance of traditions that would limit him from doing whatever he wants. He has no sense of ethics that can limit him. He presses against any laws that would limit him and he has found ways to combat our system of checks and balances, such that he truly is above the law for now. His predilection for autocrats, thus, is of growing concern, to me and others, as he continues to press for and often get more Presidential powers.

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*2/3 of the Senate is required for a POTUS to be removed from office, so that would be all of the Dem Senators plus 20 Repub Senators. (not at all likely to happen)

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I’ve tried to do some quick study of the Nixon impeachment, but it’s harder than you’d think to look up simple lists of who supported what. Up until Trump, it’s been pretty well understood that you don’t need to go through the whole process, it gets to a point where it’s obvious. With Nixon, it was the judiciary committee vote that was the indicator, and he had the good graces to step down at that point. Trump will continue to say he is innocent even if he is wearing an orange jump suit and straight jacket. And he has enough support to keep fighting, no matter what it does to this country.

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It is painfully obvious that Trump does not have the scruples of Nixon, a veritable paragon of virtue in comparison to Trump. (Although Nixon was a dastardly crook, he did have the good graces to step down. He could see the handwriting on the wall, whereas Trump just writes whatever on the wall himself.)