The UK general election is around the corner and I'm questioning my own political reasoning. Who will I vote for? Will I even vote?
It becomes more and more difficult for me to even listen to UK politicians while all they seem to do is mud-sling each other and remind us how great they are. Even second had car salesmen don't sink so low as to bend our ears telling us what crooks the other garages are. They know that they will lose the sale if they get straight on the defensive and bad mouth others to make themselves look good. Yet this is what our elected leaders do every chance they get.
All I really want to hear is what each party is proposing to do for me, then I can decide if I believe it. All I actually hear is politicians and MPs maligning each other on TV and radio.
I don't want to hear this. I don't have time to hear it.
I am slowly drawing the conclusion that none of the parties really have any policies that they are happy to hold up to scrutiny. All they seem to do with their precious TV/radio air time is use it to bad mouth the other party.
We laugh at Donald Trump because he reacts and talks like a small child. But are our guys very much different?
Ok, so our elected representatives are a bit more sophisticated than that. Cheap jibes get wrapped up in expensive grammar and it all sounds rather clever. So saying something childish like "But they started it!" Or "oh, but look what they did!" , won't sound anything like so ...Trump-ish.
When news media challenges or criticizes an MP, the response will invariably be defensive in the form of an attack on the opposing party - but it will be done with enough sophistication to avoid it sounding like what it undoubtedly is. Childish name calling.
I know I am in the minority. Most people will vote for MPs who behave this way because it's the norm. They all do it, politicians have to defend themselves and expose the oppositions lies don't they?
No they don't!
Dirty defamatory politics doesn't help anyone. When politicians and public figures do it, its ugly, but worst of all it's clouds the mind of anyone who just wants to get a clear picture of what is going on and make a informed decision who to vote for. Even worse than that, these people are our leaders and this is the example they give us. This is how to behave and conduct yourself. You get caught red handed doing something you shouldn't, but rather than show remorse and apologise you try and make someone else look blacker than you and lay the blame at their door.
I really don't need the politicians to tell me who is bad and who is good.
Surely we can work out who is lying and which party didn't do what they promised they would. The news media interrogates them and that's their job. It doesn't matter that the media might have political bias or their own agenda. What's important is that their diligent questioning helps me make a judgement for myself.
Only a fool or a child, or Donald Trump uses mudslinging as a defence tactic.
So my guess is that a great chunk of people don't get a clear political picture before they vote.
They'll all vote for the one who talks the big talk and digs up the most dirt on the others. They'll read the tabloids and believe the lies and secretly think that they are all as bad as each other and it doesn't really matter who gets in, "except that one who wears the same tie as my uncle Dick, I like him".
Personally I'd be happy to vote for a grown up. I just don't see any.
Sigh.
