an uneasy quiet

Not quite sure how I’m feeling today, a peculiar mixture of nervous excitement. I want to be celebrating, I really do.

Not for the victory of Kevin Rudd you understand, but for the defeat of Howard, I long for the heady days of the early 90’s when the life expectancy of a leader of the liberal party in opposition was similar to that of a serving soldier on the western front during WWI, two weeks tops.

Even Downer got a guernsey back then, what does that tell you?

I want to be driving around with an airhorn and streamers, singing in a manner reminiscent of the munchkins celebrating the demise of the wicked witch of the west, but I can’t, not yet.

In fact, I really won’t even begin to feel anything like relaxation until about 9:00pm on election night when a clear trend emerges, then I’ll either be barely able to contain my excitement, or my excrement, one or the other.

Maybe it’s because I live in one of the safest liberal seats in the country, and the local media have been huffing and puffing the co alition’s chances like the big bad wolf doing a spot of B&E at the piggies pad.

Maybe it’s because I remember the stinging defeat of Kim Beazley in 1998 when he won on votes but lost on seats, maybe it’s because am all too aware of the right’s myriad of underhanded tricks, conscienceless ploys to retain power, never better illustrated than by Jackie Kelly’s arrogant endorsement of playing to the lowest possible denominator, wheeling out the race card for yet another airing. Reinacted all over the country, the political right’s contempt for electoral laws is matched only by their contempt for human decency.

Maybe it’s just because I have lost faith in the ability of Australians to make rational, compassionate and sensible decisions when electing a government.

I don’t know, but for me the nightmare won’t be over until Howard concedes, then, who knows? maybe a new nightmare, but at least it won’t be as bad as the one we are living now.