Described as 'bipartisan' politics at the time, what it really shows is that both men have an election coming…

Described as 'bipartisan' politics at the time, what it really shows is that both men have an election coming up. Elections were once a (poor) means to an end, now they're an end in themselves. Pollies get elected so they can get re-elected./1 https://t.co/3fd7goUgvi

They'll do anything, including ignoring a pandemic, provided they think it's a path to electoral victory. So why bother, if the whole purpose of winning elections has become just to win more elections? Regulatory capture. /2

The vested interests who own modern politicians provide the actual agendas to be implemented. Elections are their way in, through donations to compliant pollies. Win-win, the pollies get to be famous and run continuous polling and electioneering, the vested interests get to.../3

...write public policy. Again, elections is all that makes any of this charade possible. Get rid of them as an easily gamed access route to the parliament and treasury, and democracy might have a fighting chance. And we might actually fight Covid. 4/4