Democracy is another PR campaign of the elite ruling classes much like PC rubbish & equality which are all great in idealistic theory but never really work as intended in practice beyond pushing elite agendas - I could go on...
Australian Democracy is actually pretty decent - though still mostly a joke given most people participate by marking paper once every few years & are rarely listened to by local members - though there are exceptions
I would much rather vote on several topics once every 3 or 6 or 12 months rather than elect someone for years at a time who may have several undeclared interests & agendas
The UK doesn't have a true democracy due to house of Lords
The USA democracy is very much about deep pockets & spin & not a massive difference between political parties beyond distracting drama & populist rubbish
I remember as a child thinking Reagan was a good President but in reality he was an actor being fed lines
George W was clearly using an ear piece during his time in office & could not really given a crap about politics beyond his Dad threatening to cut off all family benefits - so many people I knew at the time couldn't get their head around George W using an ear piece because it was in ear - but if people just paid a little bit more attention it was rather obvious!
Despite the many short comings of Western democracies there are much worse places to live than Australia & truly horrific political conditions in most other nations - unfortunately Australian politics has been moving closer to USA style populist rubbish for the last 20 years. We are pretty lucky to be able to tune out & mostly just get on with our lives & know that even if the most evil politicians are elected in Australia there influence & power is somewhat limited & mostly just self interest rather than widespread persecution or radical religious doctrine
Even QLD with no Upper house & Sir Joh's reign of corruption was pretty mild historically speaking
The catch 22 of Australia's relatively small population, vast land mass & isolation is mostly beneficial especially given we have plentiful natural resources & arable land - though don't get me started on cotton!!!
Anyway let's hope Ukraine conflict is resolved with minimal casualties & South Korea avoids regional conflicts where possible & keeps strengthening partnership with ASM
(20min delay)