Joining the party

Well, got my acceptance letter from the Labor Party. Or rather, a letter saying my application will be presented at a committee meeting in about 2 weeks. Theoretically, I could be knocked back because I'm the fascist communist devil-worshipping son of Phillip Ruddock or something, but I feel confident that that won't happen.

This is step one in my personal journey towards, I dunno, making some kind of difference in the gore-stained horror that is Australian politics of the moment. Towards being more than an easily-ignored voice, and doing something to change the world for the better (or at least trying to). It's a traditional method, but it's what makes sense to me.

And this is certainly the time to be trying to change the Labor Party, now that it's in post-massacre freefall. My major fear is that in the attempt to beat the Liberals, Labor will become the Liberals, and that's what I want to fight. I'm still trying to work out what I think about the new economic spin and focus arising this week, with the Right factions taking control of the financial portfolios. On the one hand, that's where a lot of the fight is going to be won next election, and if the hordes that voted with their mortgage see a similar set of handouts coming from a less-evil party, that's a plus. But there's possibly some baby still in that bathwater, and I don't want to see this be the first in a cascade of movements to the right that take away the point of opposition.

Someone has to keep flying the social justice flag. And I plan to step up if I can, even if just in the local area.