The eight-week campaign is over. It's been all-out war. By that, I mean a game of politics.
It doesn't matter what part of the political spectrum you favour, the fundamental truth is that we live in a representational democracy, where people within a region defined by an independent & heavily scrutinised authority get to elect their representative in the national parliament.
Invariably, this comes down to a war between two sides, because the average person is not capable of envisaging war as having any more than two sides to any issue.
Because of that limitation of the human brain - or our lack of training in being able to think outside of such a limiting way of thinking - the war is either won or lost, there is a winner & a loser, & you either supported the winning or the losing side.
People often correlate politics to sport, which is no better. Although there are more than two teams playing, they are not doing so on the same field at the same time, so you can only watch one contest. When our ability to think outside of this simple paradigm allows us to invent games where there are multiple independent teams competing on the same field for some prize that does not necessarily require a single winner, then we will have taken a great leap forward in the way we view the world.
Until that time, Australian politics (US as well, UK to a large extent) is two sided, & then there are other parties who correlate more to unofficial referees or pitch invaders, dependent upon the respect shown by the general populace.
Like every war, this campaign has come to an end, although not to a conclusion at the time of writing, because there is no clear winner, even if the game has ended. This particular bout will be decided on points, & the judges are still in conference.
While the coaches berate their teams in the dressing sheds in the post-match warm-down & the media frenzy looking for a man of the match to lionise before the crowds that have been disappointedly baying for blood, some of the players have been asked for their thoughts.
"It's such a shame we lost bluey so early in the match - he's been a strong campaigner for several seasons, but they just cut his margin."
"I lost some good mates out there. They gave their all, & now they've gone - never to be seen in the house again."
War, sport, politics. It's a matter of scale, I guess.
In politics, no-one is injured - ever! No-one dies under enemy fire. People just retire from political life & either live off their parliamentary pension or take up charity chairmanships.
In a true democracy, those who were not re-elected should simply be seen as no longer being representative of the region for which they stood. If they belong to a party, then it's not even personal - it's the relevance of the party to that area. If they are an independent, then it's a lack of ability to communicate with (listen to as well as talk to) their neighbours.
Nothing more. There is no God-given right to be elected to parliament or even to stand for election. Anyone can stand. Anyone can be elected. Anyone can fail. Anyone can be defeated. That's democracy.
There'll be another game all too soon. The same team colours will come out in the reserve grade under a different coach (same club management), & we'll go through the same routine of feeling sorry for the 300-game player stretchered off the field with a career-ending slice to his margin.
I, however, will be cheering on the replacement who brings fresh legs, new ideas, & a passion to do better & show that they deserve to be a part of the run-on team in the next game. I will also appreciate the skills of the legendary player who saved their side from defeat yet-again.
I will forget the fallen. This is just politics, not war.
In war, nobody ever wins, & all of the fallen should be remembered.
