Politics: The Lesser Of Two Evils.

Unsurprisingly, Mark Latham looks to garner the majority of his votes this year more for what he isn’t than for what he is. Very few seem to genuinely like the man. Some consider him a vicious thug hellbent on beating taxi drivers for sick fun, smoking cones and rooting chicks. Some consider him a flip-flopping spastic who seemingly constructs policy by throwing a few darts at a board with random traditionalist Labor policies tacked on to it. But most define him by one simple point: he is not John Winston Howard.

Many an Australian punter – and pretty much every left-leaning young hipster who has ever written for street press – considers it a ludicrous affront to everything good and right about the country we live in that John Howard could possibly win yet another election. For the last month, and leading up until October 9^th, Latham has been lauded willy-nilly. This column has proclaimed his education policy one of the best Labor policies in 30 years. It has propped his health funding plans and defended his economic policies. But the Latham love is predominantly based on the unfortunate reality that he represents – say it with me now – the ‘lesser of two evils.’ Oh, the sweet and sour taste of two-party democracy.

But is voting for the lesser of two evils a valid plan? Is simply voting for anyone but John Howard an acceptable stand to place your ideological hat? The Australian Spartacists, for one, don’t think so. Indeed, in their hearts and minds, communism and Marxism lives on. They’re a ludicrously well-informed bunch, with an outrageous knowledge of history, economics and the ways in which power is constructed. However, unlike most informed left-wing groups, they’re taking the stance that voting for Latham isn’t acceptable, regardless of who he isn’t. In the latest issue of Australian Spartacist they make this viewpoint clear:

With over 22 percent of the population officially living in poverty, the sick and disabled unable to afford medicines or care, repression against trade unionists, Aborigines and immigrants confronting cop raids and the Australian military assisting in the bloody occupation of Iraq, it is understandable that many want to see the end of the hated Howard regime. However, whichever major party wins the upcoming federal elections, it will mean continued attacks on the working people and oppressed in the interests of the profit-hungry capitalist rulers.

‘Latham’s Australian Labor Party, a very right-wing bourgeois workers party, is committed to delivering more of the same racist reaction, strong state militarism and cuts to social welfare programs as the Liberal/National Coalition. We Trotskyists of the Spartacist League say there is (to our knowledge) no party standing in these elections that offers workers the opportunity to vote for their own class interests, however crudely, against their class enemy, the capitalist rulers. We say no vote to the racist, anti-working-class ALP!

Their argument against the Latham vote goes on, citing Latham’s support of increased border security and military focus on South East Asia as examples of his party’s right-wing inclinations, especially with noted military-lover Kim Beazley as shadow defence minister. Latham has also – terribly – shown a lack of concrete support for gay marriages, a move that has rightfully angered the ever-indignant Greens.

The point is this: Latham isn’t John Howard, and that’s fantastic. It’s hard not to instantly like anyone who isn’t that despicable punk. But Latham shouldn’t be lauded simply for offering an alternative to the current prime minister. If you choose to vote for Labor, you should know who you’re voting for, not just who you’re voting against.

(Originally published in The Brag in the Fear & Loathing column).