Strange Politics: Follow Pauline on high and low roads

THERE comes a time in all our lives when we come to a fork in the road.

No need to choose - Pauline takes the high and low roads.

THERE comes a time in all our lives when we come to a fork in the road. We are forced to think hard about ourselves, about the person we want to be and where we want to go.

Do we take the road less travelled or march down the gilded path laid down by our forebears? It is that moment that defines us, that guides us and that will send us to our final destination.

Occasionally someone will transcend that fork and reveal a new way to all of us. Enter Pauline Hanson - the political phoenix with the often angry eyebrows. She shows us how one can venture boldly down both the high road and the low.

She is not a leader who believes that a policy can be worthwhile and unpopular - if it's not popular, why bother? And it's with that mantra that Senator Hanson has wowed Queensland in the past two weeks.

She has popped up in major regional areas to show the banana benders just how flexible she can be. The trick here is to play the media at its own game.

Throw out two distinct points at a press conference, one that appeals to the normals and one that appeals to the fringes.

On the Sunshine Coast, fresh from snatching a new member from the state LNP Opposition, she spoke passionately and strongly about the need for medicinal cannabis, and for an amnesty for those still at risk of prosecution. That's a nice mainstream position that's hard to argue with.

A crackdown on political perks? Yep, Pauline is all for it. Another bull's eye for the majority. But wait. What about us angry folks at Strange Politics who need someone to look down on, I mean, crack down on?

Don't fear, she has us covered. Let's target those on welfare - read: the poor - with a specific form of ID to crack down on their rorting ways. Ahh, that hits the spot. We hate the poor! Damn bludgers. Got any more of that?

What about banning burqas in Queensland's government buildings? Sure, you're already stopped from covering your face in government buildings or on your licence, but that rule doesn't mention burqas.

And if a rule doesn't target a group of people, Pauline and the rest of us want to know why not.

For this week's homework, here's a drinking game to help you through a One Nation press conference. See if you can find the mainstream policy, and the sensational claim in a single interview.

Perhaps we should make it a competition.

You could have won yourself a dog whistle, or at least some tickets to the Trump inauguration.

Originally published as Strange Politics: Follow Pauline on high and low roads