Election reflection

In democratic theory, elections are times when citizens take personal responsibility for the directions that their nation will take. Voting is almost a sacred act in which we express our allegiance to our country and have an active role in its government.

This Australian election campaign, like many others throughout the democratic world, has been notable for a pervasive undertow of apathy and alienation. Many people believe that the political dysfunction and its consequences are so strong and intractable in Australia that they cannot be alleviated by the casting of votes and by election results.

This disengagement is understandable. But, as in the rest of life, apathy and alienation generally come from the bad spirit. While recognising the gravity of the situation, we respond to it best by asking whether we can help in some small way to make a better Australia.

Any good response begins with taking time to think about what matters.  And when it comes to thinking, five minutes can seem a long time! At a time when political parties and our society can so easily be paralysed by self-interest, it is helpful to raise our eyes to all the people and relationships that form us as  a nation. What matters is how government can serve the good of all Australians, especially the most vulnerable. Elections prompt us to take an interest in the  people who are neglected in our society. We can ask how we can best share our common wealth so they can be included in society, and so how we shall hand on a better world to our children.

Underlying the promises, economic nostrums and slogans that decorate election campaigns lie real human beings, their welfare, and their relationships with one another and with the natural environment. These are the things that matter.

When we allow our minds to wander on all the people who matter, we can be overwhelmed by their number and variety and by the extent to which relationships essential to human flourishing are fractured. At election times, when our political representatives seek feedback from us about what matters to us, we can focus on one or two excluded groups that touch our hearts most deeply– asylum seekers and the mentally ill, for example. We can study their needs, and write to our local candidates or visit their offices, asking them they plan to address them. Similarly with other issues like the environment.

When we vote, of course, we can be discouraged by how little difference our vote makes. We may live in an electorate in which one party has a 30 per cent majority, or in one where we do not think any of the candidates takes seriously the people and relationships who matter to us. But even there the integrity and care with which we vote do make a difference. They help shift the public mood from discouragement to a sense of possibility. They also keep us and the way we speak about the election focused on what matters.

Elections offer us a choice between candidates and parties. The poverty and compromise that this choice offers can make us despondent. But as is the case in every choice we make, elections also offer us a choice between hope and despair. The good spirit always awakens hope. This is not a cheery optimism that things will turn out ok but the hope against hope in the Spirit  who stirs in each human heart and in each encounter we have with one another and with our world.

Ultimately the reason why we choose our brothers and sisters to represent us in an election is that God has first chosen us. Because we are important, it is important for us to choose wisely.