On Biden, Trump, Harris and the race for the White House
Peter Barry writes: President Biden has done the right thing and withdrawn his candidacy, much to the relief of those around the world supporting democracy. It would be best if everyone rallied around Kamala Harris as time is too short to play any nomination games.
Harris is young, dynamic and fairly quick on her feet. She is likely to grow into the role, with Biden still able to offer useful insights over the coming months. The image of a dynamic, decent young woman in contrast to the rapidly aging, blustering, vindictive Trump can only help the Democrats. If third-party candidates can be convinced to drop out of the race, so much the better. A refreshing sense of hope has suffused the stale air. Phew!
Kevin Robb writes: The big question I have is, if Trump wins the November election, what are Australia, the UK, Europe and other genuine democracies going to do? Stick with what could be a USA dictatorship or abandon diplomatic ties? Methinks we should stick with the EU and Asia.
On whether Labor should ditch its caucus rules
Suzie McKenzie writes: In my opinion, Rachel Withers won the debate on caucus rules. I am a dual citizen of Australia and the US, and I see stringent party caucus compliance as leading to a lack of diversity of opinion and a stifling of political voices. While party solidarity may be desirable, it is repressive and retrogressive when it becomes all about beating up on members who have alternate views, thus forcing them to get on board, get in line, or get out. It leads to a morass of lock-step thinking and louder-than-the-rest bullying that is ALL about politics and not about democracy itself.
It took 10 years of internal wrangling to get marriage equality to the forefront; Gaza’s citizens don’t have that kind of time. Senator Fatima Payman was correct. Labor lost a politician of good quality when they threw the gauntlet down at her feet and she walked.
Young multicultural voters want politicians who aren’t afraid to take a stance on causes and issues. The youth vote doesn’t hold tightly to “party” lines and loyalties; they are a far more fluid voting segment than Boomers and others. They want and expect a representative to do just that: represent them and their views! If Labor doesn’t recognise the youth trend in political discourse and participation they may find a voting public that is increasingly disaffected and apolitical in their voting habits, if indeed, they vote at all. If the youth of the country vote, it has become likely they will vote for anything other than Labor or Liberal.
When so much of the Australian public pays no attention at all to politics, it’s business as usual, and politics becomes an uninteresting, to-be-ignored sideline. I think the general opinion of the political process and politicians is that, once elected, they are removed from their constituents and become little more than political animals playing out an all-consuming, private-to-them power game. What does it matter who is elected and why they were elected when voices are throttled due to caucus rules?
Caucus loyalty and the party-line kind of thinking are ingrained and 130 years of the same is hard to change, but as the song once said, “The times, they are a-changin’”. If the political process doesn’t change with the times, it becomes increasingly irrelevant.
On whether non-citizens should get the vote
Margaret Callinan writes: I find nothing persuasive in Ben Clark’s article “Australia should let all residents vote — not just citizens”. That people live here for a few or many years without taking out citizenship says to me that they are happy to accept the benefits of living in Australia but they have an escape option if things here go pear-shaped.
What we should be doing is asking long-term residents why they are not becoming citizens. We should expect that with the benefits of living here should come the commitment of citizenship, which is something beyond paying tax.
I agree the citizenship process and costs are deterrents. That should be changed. But to allow non-citizens to vote without a formal commitment to Australia is to devalue the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
Vanessa Grant writes: If you pay taxes in this country, you should be able to have a say at the ballot box in how those taxes are spent, regardless of your residency status.
