We all know about the ugly parent syndrome. Well get ready for a new and even more disturbing syndrome about to invade our lives – the ugly political candidates.
We are still more than a year away from the state election, but the jostling to be the chosen one has started with a vengeance, and I mean vengeance. I am no fan of any of the political parties, because regardless of the denomination, they all act like a bunch of spoilt children. More than any other vocation I can think of, politics brings out the worst in people.
The pre-selection battle among Labor ranks for the seat of Tarneit is making the Mayweather/McGregor fight look like a kindergarten hissy-fit. Three candidates, and their supporters, have started a public slanging match. The tone of the engagement has been set low from the start, so who knows what depths it will plummet to. And these people are expecting us to vote for them! Please.
The manner in which candidates from the same party treat each other, talk about each other, and attack each other, is concerning. We all understand ambition, but the vitriol in these campaigns is not healthy. The mud is being slung at a furious rate to the point I doubt whoever wins will have the energy to take on the other parties.
It is said you get the government you deserve, and that may have been true in the past, but not now. None of us deserve this lot. What sort of person would want to put themselves through this kind of public humiliation?
The political parties are becoming the biggest deterrent to attracting suitable people to run for Parliament. They are so corporate-dollar driven and factionalised, they not only fail to recruit from outside the party, they are also guilty of cannibalising their inner circle.
I think our threshold for the behaviour of parties and candidates of all persuasions has reached its limit. Unfortunately this is not getting through to those that could change the system. Stop validating this kind of behaviour with the old ‘politics is a dirty business’.
Just clean up your act. ■
