The US presidential election hadn’t even been called yet, but right on cue, Australian Greens were already frothing at the mouth about Donald Trump’s impending political success.
For some, democracy is only a great thing if your people win.
The small party, which will most likely control the balance of power if Anthony Albanese loses his majority in the next federal election, has led the charge against the incoming US president-elect.
Greens leader Adam Bandt was unusually the most reasonable Green MP on social media, tweeting: “This is a pretty terrifying outcome for many of us.”
But once his team started targeting Trump, it didn’t take long for Bandt to follow them as leader.
Senator Jordon Steele-John led the charge, simply tweeting “end AUKUS” – a reference to Australia’s $368 billion nuclear submarine deal with Britain and the US – as if isolating Australia from its key ally is the best way to especially if you think Trump’s re-election will only add to global instability.
Shortly afterwards, Bandt issued a press release demanding that Labor cancel the AUKUS agreement entirely.
Senator Larissa Waters wrote: ‘Like many of you, I am still in shock that a misogynistic, sexist and racist con man who does not accept climate science has likely been chosen to lead a world power that Australia has so many ties to. .’
Greens Senator Larissa Waters (pictured) said she was ‘shocked that a misogynistic, sexist and racist grifter’ would likely become the next president
Donald Trump (pictured with his wife Melania) claimed victory, saying: ‘This is the greatest political movement of all time’
Unless you decide to emulate Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden and label Trump supporters “deplorable” or “trash,” it’s more useful to understand why so many mainstream Americans are willing to vote for Trump despite all his flaws.
Many who voted for Trump are fed up with the political class and the way many on the left choose to lecture the mainstream with a contempt they can barely conceal – as the Greens are doing again.
At the time of publication, it appears that Trump will even win the popular vote — and not just a majority of the Electoral College, the state-based voting system that determines who is elected president.
The attitude of rejecting the mainstream is not limited to American political decision-making. Trump is not the cause of the political problems in the US, he is a symptom of them. Understanding what they are, in an effort to address them, is the cure.
That includes understanding the voter attitudes that get Trump elected twice now, and that allow people like Trump to succeed despite his well-documented shortcomings.
The problem with such an approach is that it requires some self-reflection on the part of the self-appointed guardians of what is right and wrong. Self-reflection is not exactly the Greens’ strong point.
Nor does the coterie of commentators who were also quick to attack the looming democratic outcome in the world’s most famous and powerful democracy.
Greens leader Adam Bandt (pictured) has taken aim at Trump by declaring that the Labor Party must cancel the AUKUS deal
Mike Carlton tweeted, presumably at least jokingly: “We could be in a defense treaty with our largest customer. CHINAU.’
I’m not sure that keeping military hands on a genocidal dictatorship is necessarily the lesser evil compared to tolerating another four years of a democratically elected Trump as US president.
Legal Blog Justinian’s tweet distinguishing between Democratic and Republican states – labeling the South as ‘dumbf***istan’ while describing the Democratic West and East Coasts along with the Great Lakes regions as ‘America’ – captures the elites’ disdain for the mainstream.
Personally, I would prefer Trump not to return as president, not least because of the way he carried on when he lost four years ago.
But at least he knows how to upset the right people.
That said, the outrage brigade is always easily upset.
Maybe they should be grateful for Trump’s return. He’ll give them a lot more to complain about, that’s for sure.