Politics is a dirty word

  Is US President, Donald Trump a providentialist? He sees himself as a modern day Oliver Cromwell who seized power in England and killed the King Charles 1. Cromwell firm ly belie ved in providentialism -that God was actively directing the affairs of the world, through the actions of "chosen people" God had provided for such purposes.

 The stupidity of our political system has been highlighted again by the latest Federal election. For years successive Governments have been enmeshed in internal party politics. Politicians owe more allegiance to their parties than to voters in their electorates. The people do not elect Prime Ministers – they elect local members to Parliament who appoint the PM. The best way forward is to dump preferential voting and go back to a ‘first past the post’ system for elections. That would eliminate the absurdity of candidates winning a seat (particularly in the Senate when they only receive a handful of votes. The only point of voting is to to provide an effective and stable form of Government – but that is not what happens in Australia. In recent years, our ridiculous preferential voting system has seen a host of dubious individuals elected even though they garnered just a sprinkling of votes. Not only that, political parties select leaders on a whim – which has seen the farce of...