Gday...

a very basic, but not inaccurate, explanation of 'political persuasion'  

Personally, back in my teens I had the 'social' attitude displayed by the young girl in the 'story' as my family was very poor - even by the standards of the 1950s/1960s - and we struggled to have any sort of existence ... and I got tired of suffering the jibes and humiliation of being 'disadvantaged' from those who were not 'in our boat'. I believed that there should be a more equitable distribution of wealth. Labor-leaner?

However, by the time I was in my mid-30s, after putting myself through night-school, working three jobs to get enough money to put a deposit on a block of land and then build a home etc etc, I began to lean more strongly to the credo that one gets out of life what one puts in ... hard work, discipline and tenacity rewards. Liberal-leaner?

These days I am a fervent independent as, whilst I believe that we, as a community, MUST do what we can for those who GENUINELY are disadvantaged, (Labor-leaner) the opportunity to better oneself is always there - given hard work, discipline, tenacity (and probably luck ) (Liberal-leaner?).

But the problem these days is that those who are representing the major parties are too far removed from - or no longer remember - what it was like to not have 'advantage'. Some rare exceptions on both sides I guess, but speaking generally - self-interest is the major motivator of our elected officials.

Again, thanks for posting that 'story' ... I doubt we will ever have a government elected that will be able to achieve 'betterment for all' ... as the expression 'tarred with the same brush' indicates, I cannot support either side of what has degenerated to what we call politics.

And all of that is further complicated by the general apathy of the voting public - so we quite probably get the politicians we deserve  

Cheers - come the revolution - John

I spose I've been a swinger most of my life but really,, it makes me sick when I see SOME of these people in parliment and the way they use our money for themselves like a bottomless pit of cash. Pension for life etc.   No company in the world does that for their workers. Look at Joe Hockey as a student leading campus to lobby the government to pay Uni fees. Then 25 years later as the man holding the purse strings he tries to take the money FROM the students. Then he decides to leave parliament and is entitled to his taxpayer funded pension but at the same time lands a job as the ambassador to the USA which attracts a huge salary. So he double dips.   Remember he is the guy that told ordinary working Aussies that the times of entitlements were over and no pensions , or lower pensions for you.