2019 Election Fallout

The past week has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I woke up early Saturday, and felt like a small child on Christmas morning. Walking out of the voting centre I had a spring in my step and a smile on my face – I was sure that in 12 hours a new era would begin. As the results started coming in, my optimism wavered and I felt quite numb.

What followed included feelings of anger, resentment, disbelief, confusion and at times, disgust. I’ve seen many like-minded persons sharing similar emotions. In processing these feelings over the past week, I have concluded that much of these emotions have been misdirected. I have witnessed countless arguments on social media and in real life, where left leaning persons insult, belittle and criticise both groups and individuals who voted for right wing parties. Whilst each conversation featured diverse topics – the outcome was always the same: the right-leaning person did not change their mind.

This week, I have realised that it is not my responsibility, nor any other left-leaning voter’s, to convince others how to vote. It is not my place to attack and vilify those who voted for a right-wing party. My anger and disappointment does not lie with the constituents. It lies with the Labor Party, the Greens and more broadly, left wing parties the world over. It is these parties that have failed, not the people.

The success of the right is not unique to Australia. In recent years we’ve seen it in the United States with Trump and in the UK with Brexit. Clearly, the Left is doing something so very wrong. Partially, this could be contributed to the fact that the Left is largely catering to a small proportion of left-leaning persons. For instance, whilst the environment and climate change are monumental issues, this does not appeal low-income earners who are struggling to make ends meet. Perhaps these are the votes that were lost.

Over the next few years, the Left needs to regroup and rebrand itself. It cannot go on the way it is and expect the next election to go any differently. The Labor Party and the Greens must learn from their mistakes, and from the mistakes made from those around the globe, and come back stronger and more inclusive at the next election.

 

 

 

Abortion & anecdotes

Over the past few weeks, abortion has been a hot topic. The archaic legislation that has been passed in parts of the United States has been heavily criticised, with pro-choice activists doing everything in their power to have these bans lifted. A popular pro-choice argument goes something like this… imagine that a 12 year old girl has been raped, has fallen pregnant and is now forced to give birth to the child due to abortion bans.

This narrative is nothing short of horrific. It’s what nightmares are made of. And whilst it may be a powerful tool use in the pro-choice agenda, it is heavily flawed.

This narrative, alongside those that refer to incest and pregnancies that present health risks to the mother, paints certain abortions as more “worthy” than others. It suggests that in order to have an abortion, you need to have a tragic back-story. This completely alienates a considerable chunk of women that have abortions because they do not want to have a baby. The prevalence of these scenarios in debates surrounding abortion must make it more difficult for women to justify their choice not only to others, but also to themselves. It doesn’t sit well with me that people who are pro-choice use these anecdotes far too frequently to justify abortion. When, in fact, the only justification necessary for an abortion is that a woman has chosen one.

I must admit, these anecdotes are powerful. However, it’s time to change the way we, pro-choicers, discuss abortion. The vast majority of us do not know the raped 12-year-old girl, but most of us know a woman who has had to make a tough choice because it was what was right for her.