Anti-Democratic Laws in the Guise of "National Security"

I won't belabour the point. The headline is far from "news". (We've been living with this idiocy since "9/11" spawned the PATRIOT Act in the USA.  No, this is not one of "those" articles.)

True democracy is dying at the hands of the far right across the world.

Here's a simple question.  How do YOU as an individual get a voice in the government of your country ?

The majority of people will answer with the over-simplistic "at the ballot box"or "by my vote".  Sorry, but that would only work if all our votes were of equal value and ANY person in an electorate could realistically stand as a candidate, garner enough votes and enter one of the houses of government with an equal voice.  That is not the truth and you should know it.

Ignoring the whole "1 vote, 1 value" issue, most of us live in countries where there is effectively a 2 party system.  Yes, there are other political parties, but as has become patently clear, the ruling parties will do whatever they can to eliminate or render impotent such groups.

Now we're seeing active attacks on the ability of citizens to gather and create a unified voice.  Don't forget that they have effectively neutered the trade unions and cut off protesting at the knees.

Don't misunderstand, I agree that agents of foreign interests should not be able to derail the electoral process.  But.... We already have a reasonable reporting requirement in place for "substantial" contributions (currently $13,500 until June 2018).  So why require small donations to lobby groups to be recorded?  There can be only one purpose in that; to make it economically nonviable to collect small sums. Of course it'll have almost no impact on the companies who have been using the lobbying scam for decades.  But they don't like it when Joe Public decides to use the same means to fight back.

If you do not want to lose your somewhat limited access to voices in the nation's houses of parliament, then you should read what is being done to your rights.

Here's a few possible starting points:

• Google search AU (Australia)
• GetUp (Australia)
• Independent Australia
• Google search NZ  (New Zealand)
• Popular Resistance (USA)

Don't believe it, or don't want to believe it ?

True "Democracy" has been in the hands of the wealthy elites since before any of us were born. What little influence we have is being "lawyered" away faster than our nearly nonexistent "rights".

I can't speak for anyone else, but if one more politician uses the "T" word to justify some soul crushing Law, I think maybe that we should reconsider our options, and NOT vote for him next time around.