DONALD DUCK

DONALD DUCK 

2016 hasn’t been a good year.

           I’ve never liked politicians, I always thought they were all snakes in the grass, never to be trusted. I could never be leader of a country as I’m way too honest and people don’t like honesty because they like sugar coated bullshit. 

I always thought Americans over exaggerated politicians and elections too much (I still do). On social media I’ve been hearing too much about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and I was looking forward to the election coming to an end. I don’t want to go onto social media and have too much politics in my face because it's boring. A little bit I don’t mind, but not too much. Six months ago I would delete any person I was following on Twitter that mentioned the election and I also did the same to any page that went on about it on Facebook. I understand people caring and going on about it a month before the election but we here in Australia were hearing about that crap for over a year before the election. WE don’t even hear about our own elections and politicians that much. It was just so OTT. 

We Australians just don’t give a shit about our politicians or elections. When it’s time to vote we just moan, go to the polling booth, strike some boxes and go home. Somebody becomes PM and it’s over, we just don’t give a shit. We do a bit, but not as much as Americans do. We don’t celebrate or party when someone gets elected as a leader, this is Australia; we don’t do that. In America everyone who votes gets a sticker to say they voted. I still want a sticker though, at least I have something to look forward to. Everyone in Australia has to vote, if they don’t they get fined. In Australia we don’t get stickers, we get sausage sizzles. Before I became a vegetarian I was disappointed because there was never a sausage sizzle where I voted. As soon as I became a vegetarian, every time I went to vote there were sausage sizzles everywhere. I really do believe there is some big force out there that is just determined to fuck me over in life. Australians care more about the sausage sizzles than the actual vote, it’s not because we don’t care (we do) but we just have a more of a relaxed, easy-going attitude. We don’t act like the world is over when weirdo’s and freak’s become our leader… and believe me we’ve had some ****. Sure we get pissed off if someone we don’t like gets into power and sure we have a whine and a bitch about whoever is PM at the time, but we just don’t go overboard with it. I mean you just got to chill out in life.

           My mum tells people that I always enjoy voting in an election, I must admit I do. In Australia you get this really big long piece of paper and a smaller piece of paper. On the big one you can either pick 1 person you want to vote for or you have to number lots of them, I enjoy numbering lots of them. I’m very particular of who I vote for. My mum hates voting and she says the only reason she votes is because she has to because she doesn’t want to get fined. I would do it even if it was a choice. I want to have a say of who is in power, I don’t want other people to make that decision for me, there’s a lot of idiots out there, I want my vote to count. I like voting because years ago women couldn’t vote at all, women had to fight for the right to vote. it was incredibly difficult for women to even get the right to vote. I remember when my mum was with my stepfather he got really into politics and the elections and he used to ring up all his children (and some of his close friends) before voting day and would talk to them for hours about it and tell them who he thought should be the next Prime Minister of Australia. I don’t know what his kids thought about those phone calls, I think it was a very “dad” thing to do and they probably laughed about it afterwards. 

My dad used to go on about politics a fair bit, Marie used to call him the “next Bob Hawke”, he used to sit around the table with us and talk about current affairs like politics and stuff. When we were kids we weren’t that interested, I mean BORING. If he started talking shit like that with me as an adult I would probably be more interested, but no 5-year-old wants to listen to that shit. I don’t think I have any friends (or any previous friends) or boyfriends that really gave a shit about politicians and elections. We’ve all been a pretty chilled out. I don’t think Kristy would have a clue about politicians or what’s happening in the world, it’s the last thing she cares about. I don’t know what she does when goes to vote, she probably asks someone who she should vote for and votes for whoever they like. Sharon doesn’t vote because she’s not an Australian citizen (even though she’s lived here all her life). Janet is smart but we don’t really talk about politics, we just like to hang out and have a laugh. I’m trying to think of one person in the present or my past who was interested in politics but I can’t think of any. Matthew was interested in intelligent stuff but I can’t even remember us having any conversations about politics. I think he had a thing for that Natasha Stott Despoja once when he was younger, that’s all I can remember. A lot of us do care about what is happening in the world and in Australia – but we don’t seem to care to talk about it all the time. I have an American friend who posts a lot of political stuff on his feed about American politicians but he’s probably the only person I can think off who cares about that kind of thing and he’s not Australian (he’s American).

           I’ve always been into human rights and I’ve always been against racism, homophobia and sexism and most people know this about me. I remember when Barack Obama was up to become President of the USA, I don’t even remember who he was going against now but he became President and we were all happy about it because he was the first African-American to be elected and he seemed like a good guy. My Dad was chatting to Marie and I on MSN Messenger and he told us that we should stay up and watch him being sworn in because its history in the making and he said it’s an important historic moment. I decided to watch it, however American and Australian time zones are different and I remember staying up really late at night watching it (or early in the morning). I tried to stay up to watch it all but I was just so tired, and I had to work the next day. I just remember Barack Obama going into this building to sign something and he was in there for what seemed like forever and the camera’s were filming the building he was in, and I just spent what seemed like forever looking at this building and I ended up falling asleep. I watched it on the news the next night so I saw what I wanted to see. Marie didn’t watch it at all because she didn’t care, she never cared about anything intelligent, she wouldn’t even notice if the world was coming to an end tomorrow. All Marie cared about was The Brady Bunch, koalas and getting knocked up.

           I think this American election of 2016 will go down in history as being one of the most interesting (even I started to get hooked in the week leading up to it) usually most elections are forgettable but this one had two interesting people going up against each other Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I remember Ricky Gervais (the comedian) wrote on Facebook that this election is like American’s IQ test – ha ha  funny. I heard that some people have unfriended people online because they found out their friends and family voted for him. I wouldn’t unfriend someone for having a difference of opinion from me. I wouldn’t delete a friend or family member for liking him. I didn’t respect Hillary standing by her husband Bill Clinton after she found out that he had an affair behind her back. If someone disrespected me or broke my trust they would be out the door, I don’t put up with any shit. Americans who are anti-Clinton were on the news saying that now that Hillary lost there will never be a Clinton in the White House again. 

           I heard that Kanye West is running for President of the USA 2020, he probably thinks he has a chance. Kanye West thinks he’s someone that people will look up to “the kids need someone they can admire”. Michael Moore said on Trumpland that he will run for president in 2020. I don’t agree with everything he says or believes in but he seems to have his head screwed on right.

           If there’s anything good to come out of the American election it is that it’s finally over. The downside is that we have to listen to 1,000s of news reports about Donald Trump (groan). Oh well you can’t get everything you want in life.