Political Rhetoric.

[Bleedin Thumb]

Don't you just love election time!
In NSW we currently have a State election looming as well as the Federal which means that it is hard to drive very far without some sort of billboard assaulting the senses.

One such poster that caught my eye today said something about standing for "FAMILY VALUES" which got me thinking does that actually mean.

I've given it a bit of thought and I really don't know what they can be on about.

Who's family.... can't be mine. I value... a nice bit of timber, my wife values expensive clothes, my kids value...chocolate ice-cream?

So what can this all mean?? Is it some sort of Christian 1950's idealised view of Western Civilisation?

Do the turkeys that promote themselves and their political ideologies with such phrases ever stop to think about what they are promoting?



.......Just realised that this may be deemed as a political posting... its not.

Its just a quiet reflection on the stupid language that politicians of all persuasions think that they have to use in order to get us to vote for them.

[Gumby]

Family value to a politician is the value in dollar terms they expect to rip off you in a particular financial year.

Family values in Victoria are very high.

[joe greiner]

Several years ago, there was a Dilbert comic strip concerned with "buzzword bingo." Also, there's a few web sites dedicated to construction of buzz phrases. Whenever one of the corporate or gummint types starts talking, my BS detector kicks into overdrive.

Joe

[bsrlee]

Yep, its 1950's rhetoric, hastily rebadged from 1930's German National Socialist Party rhetoric - Kinder, Kirk und Kuchen. Barefoot Missus chained to the stove with a bunch of squalling kids around her feet, Hubby a wage slave for the "Big End'.

Unfortunatley its the religious nutter types who are currently crowding out the more reasonable types in the party back rooms, and pushing their more radical candidates into office. The non-crazies just don't have the driving urge to inflict their ideology on everyone else.

[echnidna]

What it means in a nutshell is,
We Vote - but don't get a say in how things are done.

[Honorary Bloke]

bsrlee is right, although I suspect Spartacus led his uprising based around Family Values or someting similar as well.

It is a political construct which can mean anything you want it to mean, so it is not controversial. In fact, no pollie is going to come out against Family Values--so it can't be fought.

The (correct) assumption is that the average voter knows SFA about the candidates, so a pleasant catchphrase is needed to appeal to those uninformed voters (whose numbers are legion). Sigh.

[Bleedin Thumb]

So the pollie with the best catch phrase wins........... I think its about time I launched my campaign.

I'll reduce taxes...............
I'll rebuild our hospitals.........
I'll be nice to old people............
I'll get tough on criminals.............

[Honorary Bloke]

So the pollie with the best catch phrase wins........... I think its about time I launched my campaign.

I'll reduce taxes...............
I'll rebuild our hospitals.........
I'll be nice to old people............
I'll get tough on criminals.............

What about free pie and beer at the footy matches?

[silentC]

It is carefully designed to reinforce the "us and them" attitudes that have helped the Federal Govt stay in power for so long. It works for them, so why not?

[Doughboy]

I wonder if pollies realise, no matter what party they are in ... no matter what country they govern, that we as citizens think they are petty name calling foolish imbeciles!!!?

I don't care if one of them smoked pot as a uni student, I don't care if they paint their toenails pink I care about how they run the country and at present I only see them running the country into the ground. eventually they must be made accountable just like most jobs give them a trial period and if they stuff up kick them out. Lies will get them in to the position but only action can keep them there.

Pete

[Howdya do that]

So the pollie with the best catch phrase wins........... I think its about time I launched my campaign.

I'll reduce taxes...............
I'll rebuild our hospitals.........
I'll be nice to old people............
I'll get tough on criminals.............

They have all promised that for the last 200 years bleedin

Bloody liars

[coastie]

In the States they call them lion tamers,out here we call them lion bastards.

[RETIRED]

Honorary Blokes sig.

Ten women fainted in a rush for 2000lbs of butter at a Sydney store today. About 200 women refused to leave when police closed the sale. The police then joined hands and forced the women back. - News report, Sydney, 7 March, 1952.

The end of rationing after the war. Hard to believe.

[Rossluck]

I wonder if pollies realise, no matter what party they are in ... no matter what country they govern, that we as citizens think they are petty name calling foolish imbeciles!!!?

I don't care if one of them smoked pot as a uni student, I don't care if they paint their toenails pink I care about how they run the country and at present I only see them running the country into the ground. eventually they must be made accountable just like most jobs give them a trial period and if they stuff up kick them out. Lies will get them in to the position but only action can keep them there.

Pete

Well said, Pete. I know that a caller to ABC radio here in Brisbane told the broadcaster that "we don't care who Kevin Rudd or John Howard have lunch with, only the pollies and you [the media] are interested ...". I thought it was a reminder that pollies and the media often misread the public pretty badly.

[echnidna]

So I wonder who the next leader of the opposition will be,
Little Johnny or Peter Whatisname