subvert democracy. they all seek to limit the free expression of a citizen's participation in the direction of the nation. in reality, they all become gangs, a tool to provide logistical support to the grandees who enjoy the perks and emoluments of parliament, and the ego satisfaction of ruling a state or nation.

supporting a party is handing over to others your right to participate as an equal. you support a party when you accept that you are inferior, and can best survive by catching the scraps your masters throw to their henchmen. it is essentially a feudal relationship.

life is what it is, and there is no great shame in accepting reality. the only shame comes when people who know they are second class insist on styling themselves 'citizens' of a 'democracy'. empty boasting is always derided, or despised. the cultural cringe of australians comes from always fearing their boast will be exposed, or remarked on.

Reading this post, I at first applauded his conviction; no letter shall stand over any other letter, true democracy tolerates no self aggrandisement, the capital letter is a tool of the ruling hegemony.

Alas, our poster has monopolised the capital for himself.

Revolutionary has become tyrant?

pal, you read it, at least. do you have any observations regarding the accuracy of my (thumbnail) assessment of oz political evolution? i've been asking questions and making similar assertions for some time now, and have never had any argument. apparently,if you're smart enough to understand me, you're smart enough to suspect i'm right.

no one likes to hear it of course. but while i was willing to smile and shake my head about 'oz democracy' for a long time, your masters are beginning to make people disappear. that isn't amusing. what are you going to do about it? perhaps you're one of those who see no problem, as long as your masters confine their police-state attitudes and activities to terrorists.

if, on the other hand, you're worried about just who is a terrorist and how they are chosen- what can you do? join 'getup! and prance around the street? that's about it. protests are not useless, but when the opposition doesn't oppose police state activity, protests chiefly act as a way to get people on 'undesirable' lists.

if you are blinded by culture to the value of democracy, why do you express your opinions at all? don't you see any value in having citizen initiative and direct elections?

Demos, after reading several of your new threads and taking you up on some of your comments, I still really don’t understand where you are coming from.

Surely a properly functioning democracy, or any political or governmental system for that matter, MUST have a government, with politicians, who are empowered to make decisions for us and who cannot be expected to be perfect.

Surely democracy needs opposing parties that compete with each other to be elected and then hold each other to account.

Again I need clarification of just what it is you are on about…please

We have more than enough mechanisms in place to prevent political parties from successfully subverting democracy. We have political parties because people generally trust those institutions more than independent candidates, which is not unreasonable. That's democracy for you.

We have a constitutionally corrupt and inept Governor General

We have a constitutionally corrupt and inept Electoral Commission

We have constitutionally corrupt and inept Politicians

So democracy No!

What we have is Political Dictatorship.

The Constitution is there

The Constitutional Debates are there for those who want to know.

These can be found at parliament house home page.

Within these debates are the answers and the reasons behind the Constitution.

Now if those on this site are to inept to look then you are at fault.