Our Worst Politician Is An Ex Footballer | Justin Madden

[SamNewman]

In our part of the world (in this State Of Victoria - Australia) we are seeing some of the worst impacts of housing shortages combined with very bad planning outcomes. At the heart of the problem is a state government minister who has been involved in numerous scandals and has been accused on many occasions of trying to subvert public consultation processes whilst favoring property developers. This lack of transparency and bullish behavior is unprecedented in our State, as far as I know.

I'll get to my point: This so called Minister is an ex footballer who amongst many other deeds, has been accused of devising a strategy for using his football background to drum up public support. I have to stress though that the entire strategy of using football credentials to win support has has been blamed on Justin Madden's media advisor who has taken the fall.

Yes, you get it fellow sports haters; democracy displaced by popularity. Nothing new I hear you say. However, only an ex sports-person could stoop to such lows in politics (IMO) as this makes for a very disturbing combination. It would be a blight on our societies if we ever had to succumb to the influences of ex sports people trying to channel their popularity to influence political outcomes. Does it ever happen in your part of the world?

Read more if you are interested:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/madde ... -p97f.html

http://respectthewest.wordpress.com/201 ... be-sacked/

[i_like_1981]

Hmm... I can't say it sounds the best idea. Electing a person to a position of power when their previous career consisted of receiving many blows to the head and viciously attacking dozens of other people on the same area of grass as them in pursuit of an inflated pig-skin. What sounds even worse is that he's trying to use his football prestige to increase the popularity of his governing. How irrelevant can you get? I wouldn't want to hand over a government position to someone who quite clearly is still living in their sport glory days. Let's just hope he doesn't get too high on his own supply here or it will cause havoc for the people under his control (By the way, I'm assuming that Australian football is similar to American football. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this. However, either way, I don't think a person should be allowed to maintain an office of power if they're trying to use their celebrity status to bolster their prestige and support. That should be judged by the quality and effectiveness of their decisions and conduct in office.)

I was thinking similar thoughts when Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man who became famous for playing a robot in a successful trilogy of sci-fi films, was elected to the position of Governor of California (I think?) but from what I hear, he's not doing badly and has managed to separate his acting career from his politics well without letting the two things interfere with each other. There's nothing worse than those times when politicians get too full of themselves and abuse their privileges; it really affects many people who are looking to them to make decisions, like the recent abuses of taxpayers' money committed by politicians over here in the UK.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Ray]

I'm sure it must happen in the U.S. too but I can't think of any examples right now. One of the members of our local city council used to be a famous WWF Wrestler --one of the Killer Bees tag team, Brian Blair --who used his popularity and name recognition to get elected. He was voted out not too long ago for some reason.. but that's a minor example.

[Earl]

Have you forgotten ... Jesse Ventura (not his real name, of course)? When he was Governor of Minnesota, his son once told a newspaper reporter that when his father was in high school, he enjoyed pushing smaller boys into their lockers. In other words, he said his father was a stereotypical bully without understanding the meaning of what he was saying about him. I kid you not. Jesse Ventura for President! He'll bully the world! (Well, to be fair, I should point out that he did serve our country as a Navy SEAL. I salute him for that. But he also favors the legalization of prostitution. )

[SamNewman]

LOL i_like_1981, I think our politician has had a few too many blows to the head as he is making a real mess of things over here. Arnie gets a bit of a ribbing here in Australia by people, but maybe we should look in our own backyard first. Compared to our Justin Madden, he has integrity and that is a true compliment as I am not a Schwarzenenegger fan at all.

Thanks Earl and Ray, but I think we here in Australia we are now setting the trend with our ex-sport/buffoon politician.

Here is another entertaining link:
http://player.video.news.com.au/heralds ... N3LSobQb3j

[Ray]

Yeah, I did forget about Jesse Ventura -that's a great example! He said THAT?? That really reveals his character. I've learned that when the dad is a jerk, very often the kids turn out to be jerks. I wonder how he got elected. I guess it's not that hard when the people who vote for you don't actually know you but only know your platform from brief commercial spots.

[Agent 47]

At the heart of the problem is a state government minister who has been involved in numerous scandals and has been accused on many occasions of trying to subvert public consultation processes whilst favoring property developers.

...

This so called Minister is an ex footballer

Footballers and politics, eh? - now there's an "axis of evil"!