Votes tell us about voters ...

Here's a thought: when voters choose who they're going to vote for, they are telling us what matters to them - in other words, what sort of people they are. 

Yes, there is the possibility of changing at least some of those decisions by political campaigns, but the religious, media, vested interests of the elites, and other campaigns also have an influence, and what people respond to also tells us something about them.

I consider it is important to recognise that, as it guides future decisions - sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. 

The 1972 "It's Time" (Gough Whitlam) and "Kevin07" (Kevin Rudd) campaigns capitalised on that - and the latter, in particular, edged out a time when the majority of Australians were so afraid (i.e., cowards) of people who were different and slobberingly greedy (for getting wealthy through housing, rather than wanting to own a home for personal fulfilment/psychological and emotional security). The last campaign by the ALP learned from the greed of voters shown in 2019 and thus was successful (aided by the gross  repulsiveness of the end days of the Morrison  regime), but maintained enough credibility to try being reformist in at least some areas, although the sections of the community they ... cut back their support of was ... informative. 

After the election of US President Obama in 2012, a combination of the reactionary haters becoming organised behind a cult figure and the mistakes of the Hillary Clinton campaign let a monster into power in 2016 - someone who was so repulsive Biden was elected 4 years later. 

Looking at the US mid-term elections now, 2 years after Biden's election, my impression, from outside the USA, is that that nation is fairly evenly split between a group of cowards (i.e., afraid of change and/or difference) & rabid haters (white supremacists, neo-nazis, etc) on one side, and a group of people dithering about being inclusive & progressive and fearing losing votes more than their soul - and naively being nostalgic about an era of niceness that is long gone.

I hope the second lot do better next time - if there is a next time for the USA, as, if the Republicans gain the balance of power, there are grave concerns about what they might do.

PS - see also https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/13/democrats-victory-miraculous-but-us-still-split-down-middle