Australians Do Not Grasp How Bad America Has Become
I saw a reference to a published survey of Australians’ attitudes toward the United States in light of Donald Trump’s presidency. It was commissioned by the United States Studies Centre, which I imagine has some skin in the game. In my own opinion, I think that Australians do not grasp how bad America has become under the Trump regime. Trump was a bit of a joke for Aussies, over the last decade, but the penny, just maybe, is starting to drop.
“New polling shows most Australians want to stick with the US alliance, despite holding overwhelmingly negative views towards the Trump administration and harbouring deep worries about the erosion of American democracy.
USSC Director of Research Jared Mondschein was quoted by ABC on the polling findings, saying “The Australian people are by no means fans of Donald Trump, but I think that at the same time Australians can see the strategic importance of the alliance, and that there aren’t really many alternatives to the alliance.” “
Trump’s America Shares Less & Less Democratic Ideals With Australia
The survey results suggest a grim sense of reality for many Australians when it comes to their global security and the US alliance. Better the devil you know, kind of thinking. The old white man’s fear of the yellow peril still runs in the veins of the Anglo-settler descendants of both countries. Our ridiculous AUKUS arrangement with the US, UK and ourselves is built on such anxieties. At $368 billion, we Australians get to fund the Americans and Brits in their bids to build some very expensive nuclear powered submarines. The recent historical evidence clearly indicates that these submarines will not be built for a long time, if at all, for our purposes. Despite this AUKUS is a useful fiction for our politicians and their constituents. Somewhat like the religious belief in the Almighty, never proven but never quite goes away.
The US Is Way Beyond The Pale In Terms Of Democratic Norms
Australians do not grasp how bad America has become. The brutal reality of masked ICE agents shooting a minister of religion in the head with pepper bullets. Smashing down doors and windows. Grabbing people off the streets. Forcing children out of schools. Arresting and detaining folk who have lived in America for 30 years. The extreme behaviour is more unAustralian than anything we have ever seen before. Trump ordering in the National Guard for no evidential reason into big Democrat cities like LA, Chicago and Washington DC. Heavily armed soldiers on the streets of America threatening everyday folk by their very presence. This is bad shit. This is not the actions of an ally that respects democratic norms.
The Trump Profiteering
4 Corners, the flagship ABC investigative reporting program, highlights Donald Trump and his family’s crypto currency profiteering during his second term. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already accrued to him, flagrantly in disregard of norms and laws. A convicted felon, a criminal, is running the United States of America. Everyday Aussies are disgusted by this blatant behaviour. The question must be asked, why are we not complaining about this at the highest levels of government?
Australia’s Balls Are In America’s Pocket At The Top
Former PM Paul Keating would say that Australia’s leaders have lost their bottle on the world stage. That, under their lack of guidance, we have become the tacit 51st state of America. Yes men have been running our country for years. This is why we get bugger all tax and royalties for our resources from American multinationals. Little men with low self-esteem have been giving the farm away for less than peanuts. Bought off cheaply via the revolving door into well paid lobbyist jobs post-politics. Keating was the last loud mouthed polly with big balls we have seen in Canberra. Bland party men have replaced all the originals. Scott Morrison was working for the US industrial military complex following his retirement from Canberra.
Trump’s Personal Retribution Show Trials
“The Trump regime stratagem is all about muddying the waters. It is Putinesque in its design to confuse and misdirect. Indictments of former FBI head James Comey and NY Attorney General Letitia James have zero chance of being successful, as they are based on no evidence of any real wrong doing. The retribution of Donald Trump is not only a large waste of public resources; it is destructive to the very foundation of the DOJ in terms of its perceived integrity in the public eye. The federal government and its agencies should not be used as the personal lawyers of the president.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of What Price Life?; The Stoic Golfer; Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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