Politics Swing voters - how do you feel about them?

Are you a swing voter?

  • Yes

    Votes: 15 65.2%
  • No

    Votes: 8 34.8%

  • Total voters
    23

JennyTaylor

Team Captain
Apr 29, 2022
437
575
AFL Club
West Coast
Im in my 40's and it seems like politics becomes more and more divisive than its ever been in the last 25 years. Browsing through the topics on Bigfooty there are some strong opinions and not much room in the middle.

You can hate them if they vote your political party out, or you can love them if they vote your political party in. It makes sense that they are the key to democracy, and balance out the political landscape if one side of politics goes too far.

Whats Bigfootys thoughts on swing voters? Would you be happy if they turned into rusted on voters?
 
Oct 2, 2007
42,473
42,019
Perth
AFL Club
Carlton
Im in my 40's and it seems like politics becomes more and more divisive than its ever been in the last 25 years.

Meanwhile the two biggest parties are both basically putting forward identical policies including the Coalition all but accepting Climate Change, and the ALP all but accepting Offshore processing and Boat turn backs. They're in lockstep in defence and foreign affairs, and their economic and social policies are pretty close as well (with a few outliers).

They've never been closer to the center, or each other. It's been a phenomenon that's been happening since Whitlam and Fraser were literally at polar opposites policy wise.

It's all mainly just a byproduct of the Culture wars in the USA, themselves fanned by the Russians via online manipulation. You can see it here, with 5 times more people talking about Trump and Biden, and BLM etc than they were talking about Scomo and Albo and the Floods.
 
Jul 5, 2011
15,244
22,978
AFL Club
Collingwood
I voted Labor for the first time this fed election. Partly to send a message about climate change, partly because I'm in a safe Liberal seat so it seemed like a good idea to keep the local rep on his toes.

If we only had rusted-ons, we'd effectively have a dictatorship with whoever formed majority stuck in power. Swing voting is what keeps em honest.
 
I voted Labor for the first time this fed election. Partly to send a message about climate change, partly because I'm in a safe Liberal seat so it seemed like a good idea to keep the local rep on his toes.

If we only had rusted-ons, we'd effectively have a dictatorship with whoever formed majority stuck in power. Swing voting is what keeps em honest.
There should be only "voting"
The fact that we have tribal voting isa direct result of a very, very poor media.

Anyone, point to a single piece of worthwhile, unbiased policy analysis in the last 2 decades of Political journalism?
We have exceptionally s**t political journalists and even worse Political Editors.

I inhabited the halls of the Old Parliament House when Politicians were Australians first and Party members second.
Where good ideas for the most part were supported by the other side of the house.
Where stupid ideas were howled down by both.

There should be voting, leading and ICAC for the thieves.


If Labor don't come good in the first 100 days with an ICAC or at least tabled Legislation then they have jumped the shark.


THe Uluru Statement should then be the priority over the term of this Government.

No rush. Get it 90% right and enshrined in the constitution by plebiscite so that dirty frictious divisive "liberal" campaigners like Dutton can never remove it.
 

The Passenger

The passenger, I am...
Veteran 10k Posts 30k Posts Sensible Type WCE Wings Guernsey
Mar 25, 2003
35,681
28,332
I'm a swinging voter in terms of the candidate, but not in terms of my ideals. I'll always vote for the party who is closest to my views on the social safety net, the environment and education (amongst a handful of other issues which do change in importance from election to election). Unless that party was shown to be colossally corrupt or incompetent it would be weird not to vote for them and just swing vote for the sake of it.

I must admit I do vote based on the party as a whole rather than the local candidates and that certainly has been the case since moving overseas as I'm pretty disengaged from local issues for obvious reasons. If a local candidate happened to be super vocal and active in the community and their ideals aligned with mine I would vote for them regardless of the party... but I can't envision that person representing the current iteration of the Liberal party.

For the last decade or so it's been someone from the minor future/science party, greens on Labor. In 2013, after the calamity of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd leadership changes and Conroy's overzealous surveillance policies I had Labor second last only above the Liberal party.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, prior to my early to mid 20's I was a naive privately educated schoolboy who thought the rapid increase of my parents wealth was due to some economic brilliance of the Howard/Costello team and not just them piggybacking of a huge expansion in the world economy whilst selling of the countries assets for a nice sugar hit.
 

Leeda

Talents B Sharp
Suspended
Sep 26, 2012
9,443
1,622
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Actually they are quite progressive….pushing the pin or else remarking on things we all might
have forgotten..we all need the cattle prod occasionally
 

Taj Mahal

Debutant
Mar 3, 2012
147
24
Victoria
AFL Club
Essendon
Yeah! I think 'teal' is inappropriate, though. I tend to think of 'Pink', given the amount of women who stood - and won.
Love the influx of female voices and their commitment to important policies. Don't care if they have a limited policy agenda, just happy to support their calls on enviro, transparency, corruption and human rights. Fits my major concerns. I don't subscribe to the rhetoric that Teals are 'aligned' to the left. They are mostly - and reflect - disaffected female conservatives who want to reform the conservative side and move it to the centre.
Without the encumbrance of party caucuses, they can manage legislation on a case-by-case basis rather than political dogma. I Would have preferred Labor didn't have a majority. Gotta be good for the political process.
Sick of fat old white men running the show. Now a stream of new voices, ideas and attitudes that more accurately reflect the needs and demographics of the nation has the opportunity to reshape the political landscape and behaviour of politics. I suspect that many pollies (mostly good people!) will revel in the more dignified and respectful debates that should ensue.
Bring it on.
 

Rotayjay

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 28, 2014
12,041
23,257
Adelaide, South Australia
AFL Club
Adelaide
I used to be a swing voter, but now I can't stand the Liberal Party as the party moved to the right and I moved to the left.

I don't mind swing voters who swing based on a fairly careful consideration of the policy platforms. That's a good approach. But I absolutely cannot stand it when people swing based on crap like a lie told by one side about the other's policy. For example, those who may have swung based on a totally non-existent Labor death tax in 2019.

Low-information voters swinging based on looks, 'the vibe' or a beer tax reduction is what we need to have in order to get the benefits of compulsory voting.
 

Blue1980

Brownlow Medallist
Jun 9, 2011
21,128
27,135
Melbourne
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Arsenal
I voted Labor for the first time this fed election. Partly to send a message about climate change, partly because I'm in a safe Liberal seat so it seemed like a good idea to keep the local rep on his toes.

If we only had rusted-ons, we'd effectively have a dictatorship with whoever formed majority stuck in power. Swing voting is what keeps em honest.

So where the US are going basically
 
Back