You have every right to bring them up.
I too have the right to disagree with you.
In face to face debate, a place answers can not be found elsewhere, I would ask you to name current and past ministers and opposition spokesmen.
You would be surprised just how many who claim special understanding can not get even half the answers right.
Each failure[ in your view] of past politics can be defended, even proved not to be a failure in some cases.
Your failures are looking back wards, not without hindsight.
Self confidence can be miss placed, truly, I think you are flogging a dead horse.
Just a test I promise I know without research the answers, who was Simon Crean father?
Who was Kim Beasley's dad?
Who was June Morosi?
Who was found in a dazed condition in a hotel lobby without his trousers, his wet checks the night of his election defeat are gold in my memory but he is now a great man.

In the United States, they have anti-trust laws designed to prevent corporate fascism. Microsoft recently got cut into two separate entities because it got too big for its boots. Google is under scrutiny as we speak. We have nothing like it, so Coles and Woolies trash what we imagine to be retail food competition; so Murdoch and Packer tell us fairy tales and we love it; so the political parties make it look as though they're all there is to vote for; so ..... etc, etc, ad nauseum. It's a mediocrity making machine, this 'Australian Way'. Sock has twigged to it, as has anybody else who's spent some time abroad. Australians remind me (I'm Dutch) of the Deep (US) South. "We're okay, thank y,all."

Our education departments need to be restructured from scratch for not just failure to deliver, but for promoting the destruction of the genuine spirit of inquiry in our youth (postmodernist pseudo-intellectualism isn't cutting the mustard). There are good reasons why we're slipping way down the civilisation pole and are increasingly perceived as politically and economically illiterate by other OECD countries. Literacy requires effort, not apathy. Intelligence demands inquiry, not party loyalty. We'd have to be the laziest people on the planet when it comes to political awareness.

I've found that most Australians don't even understand the difference between right-wing and left-wing. They don't know the most fundamental parts of their own political and social history. They don't realise that for a hundred years they were an effective military dictatorship. Why? Because of denial, and denial does make one illiterate in many important areas. Sock is right, I'm afraid.
We need a bloody good shake.

CJ

CJ may I ask why you stay?

Left wing Right wing, what will this do for me knowing the diff.
Are you suggesting it would alter your vote knowing the diff.
A political party has got to be made up af all sorts of beliefs dont it.
This a democracy, with laws to protect the individual,
How ya gona do this with a one track mind.
We just got rid of one of them.

Desmond you will find, often in fact, people who make such claims do so because they hold views few others ever will.
I/most understand the difference.
My party does, while it has the word Socialism in its Constitution it is no such thing.
To be so, would be trying to sell well rotted fish next to the golden arches on a Friday night rush hour.
I think we over use words like this threads title, but am comforted by the understanding those who think like that are in fact the ones with no understanding of the subject,,,,at all.

Sock-Rateez, I get the distinct impression that in this forum, you're chalking up differences of opinion to people being politically uninformed. That's a tad insulting.

Similarly, Calamity James, you say that most people don't know the "difference" between 'left' and 'right'.

Again, it's almost as if they don't know your particular definition of left or right. When you discuss Right Wing, I'm assuming you're discussing libertarian economics coupled with authoritarian social policies? Or were you considering libertarianism versus authoritarianism across the board? Socially democratic governments? Socialist governments? Communist? Is Keynesian economics traditionally left wing?

My point is, there is no singular 'left' or 'right' we can agree on, so of course people don't know what it is.

Sock-Rateez, you state that Australians are by and large politically illiterate. I concur, but I don't agree it leads to bad government. You city one government decision, and extrapolate that therefore Australian government is measurably worse than other governments, and the US system of government is far superior.
Usually, the US government is deadlocked. It's far more difficult to pass legislation.

For decades, they've represented a massive chunk of the world economy, but they can't even get public healthcare. Their nation is gridlocked between representatives from 50 states, not to mention senators and hundreds of federal representatives. Throw some partisan bickering into the mix and absolutely nothing happens.

I don't think it's measurably better at all, in fact, quite the opposite. I think there is something to be said for the fact that American colleges teach a broad range of subjects to begin with which results in more civics knowledge, however seeing as there is NO universal government loan program, many can't go to the prohibitively expensive universities and end up woefully ignorant of politics and the world around them.

Cont'd.