Australian Labor's Landslide Victory: another democracy rejects Trumpism
Will Norway follow suit?
Saturday’s landslide victory for Australia’s governing Labor Party doesn’t just give prime minister Anthony Albanese one more term: it’s severely damaged the centre-right Liberal Party and repairs will take a long time. Numerous commentators have attributed the Liberals’ disaster – at least in part – to a “Trump-lite” style adopted by their leader Peter Dutton, who even lost his own seat.
Regular reader and published poet, Dr Kai Jensen of New South Wales, commented on Dutton’s downfall:
“It's a bit like a horror series - Trump the Thirteenth. For now we have a happy ending - the monster of Trumpist populism has been decisively defeated, and is licking its wounds in the rural electorates. But it will be back.”
Is there, for the time being at least, a wider international political shift against Trumpism? If so, what does it mean for political leaders outside the US? Taking Canada and others into account, I address these questions on The Conversation.
While you’re here, though, I need to recant some predictions I made at the beginning of the year. The “bad year for labour and social-democratic parties” that I thought I saw coming in Germany, Canada, Australia and (still to come) Norway isn’t unfolding as anticipated!
Yes, as predicted, the German Social Democratic Party was roundly defeated (although it’s now a junior partner in the new governing coalition). Canada, however, proved me wrong: the polls there did a somersault once Trump took office.
At least I’d rated Albanese with a chance of returning, but the opinion polls and the betting markets were all against him as the new year kicked in, so things weren’t looking good. (Note to self: don’t make predictions!)
In the Conversation piece I try to make sense of these dramatic changes in fortunes, seeing “the Trump effect” as common denominator.
Now that the man has shown the world how he suffers delusions of papal grandeur, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni may not be able to be his friend any more. As La Repubblica’s Marco Belpoliti has put it, Trump’s AI-generated image of himself as the next Pope reveals an infantile and shameless aspiration to be regarded as infallible and to govern for life.
Source: Politico, URL: https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-giorgia-meloni-surprise-visit-us-donald-trump-florida/
He really is down a rabbit-hole.
"Socialism for the rich & austerity for the rest" is another policy agenda that the Trump Regime is all too eager to reinforce, alongside the usual culture warpiggery. Here in NZ, both have already run into stiff resistance.
And how far is New Zealand prepared to go down that rabbit hole? Will it do what it has always done: watch Australia, who watches the USA, before it decides? Wolves no - sheep yes. What does it take for New Zealand to have its own mind, or is it business as usual? Following is always easier than leading.