Now that disbelieving horror has given way to grief, shame, but not quite yet anger…

I had a nice day out on the water, far away from my fellow Australians, over half of whom voted, not only to keep the current government, but also to strengthen their hold over the Senate into a vice-like grip. Never in my own lifetime have I felt such fear that democracy might really, truly be endangered. And despite people telling me to cheer up, telling me that it’s cyclical and to remember the long Menzies years, I just don’t feel well.

I can’t look at my neighbours or my fellow commuters, because I can only talk about The Election in the company of people whose politics I know and trust.

And I have been wandering around today with the unfamiliar feeling that there is a blurred, blank space where the meaning of the phrase “I am an Australian” used to be. Not because I am full of bitter rebellion and refusal about Howard winning the election, but because the election was won on the basis of (lies about) interest rates, and especially because for most of the decade Howard has been precisely like a cultural Dementor, droning on in his grey voice, sucking the life and passion out of us all and replacing the vigour of the dissent that is essential to democracy with nothing but the emptiness of the aspiration to be “relaxed and comfortable”.

And as for the Family First party…

There are more articulate responses at mc gregg, Junk for Code and Barista.