Hi everyone, I hope you’re all well.
So, we all know Australia and America are close allie.
There are many similarities between our two great nations; like our shared ideological
split over the wholly contentious topic of Taylor Swift.
However, we also have a number of differences.
Like, Australia’s favourite national condiment, Vegemite, which
is basically made of salt and yeast (and tastes amazing), versus
American peanut butter, which has more salt than Vegemite and has
largely replaced peanuts with high fructose corn syrup.
Then, of course, there is the weather.
While the USA has a very distinct Spring, Summer, Austumn, and Wnter,
with each season a precise three months long, Australia has nine
months of summer, two months of slightly cooler summer, then
one month of HOLY CRAP IT’S FREEZING EVEN THOUGH IT’S ACTUALLY
THE SAME TEMPERATURE AS LONDON IN SPRINGTIME!!!
And who could forget our wildlife?
While the native animals in the USA are characterised by the gentle moose
and the comical skunk, going about their business and contributing
to the delicate ecosystems in which they thrive, when it comes
to Australia’s animal kingdom, everything, literally everything,
is trying to kill you
Anyway, when it comes to Australian and American politics; there
are some interesting comparisons to be made.
At first glance, it seems that our political landscapes are very
different.
I mean, first and most obvious, Australia has a completely
different system to the USA.
We are a democracy, we’re part of the Commonwealth, and as
such, Queen Elizabeth is our head of state.
Therefore, our head honcho is a Prime Minister rather than a President.
Also, voting is compulsory.
The USA is a federal republic in which the president, Congress and
federal courts share powers reserved to the national government,
according to its Constitution.
Voting is not compulsory, and the people vote for a specific candidate instead
of directly selecting a political party.
Also, Americans have this thing called the Electoral College.
This means each state gets a certain amount of
electoral college votes, cast by the state’s electors.
This is designed to protect less populous states from being dwarfed by the interest
of larger states, namely the ones on the coast.
As such, even if a presidential candidate wins
the most votes, aka the popular vote, they may not end up president
because of the Electoral College.
However, despite these vast political differences, I have noticed
some rather bizarre similarities in our politicians themselves.
It’s a bit trippy, actually.
So, what I would like to do is give you my five
favourite political doppelgangers of American and Australian politics.
President Donald Trump is a man who needs no introduction.
Known for his America-first outlook, strict stance
on illegal immigration, and
unapologetic way of doing things, Trump shocked the world when he
pulled off the ultimate upset victory in 2016 by beating Madam
Megalomaniac herself, Hillary Clinton.
He is also known fondly as The Donald or The God Emperor, or even
just Daddy, and has coined more catch phrases that have made their
way into popular culture than any pop culture icon I can think of
Now, the question I get quite a lot is, “Does Australia have it’s own
Trump?”
Well, up until very recently, I would have said no, not really.
But then, our current Prime Minister Scott Morrison waltzed onto
the scene.
At first glance, you wouldn’t think this polite, Pentecostal,
seemingly ordinary man was you’re Trump-esque kinda figure…but
then he pulled off his own upset, Trump-style election victory in May
this year.
He won our federal election against the predictions of every poll, and
against every media narrative out there.
He was the result of his party knifing a sitting Prime Minister in
the back in the middle of last year, which, understandably, incensed the
general public.
Needless to say it seemed the Liberal Party, which
is our conservative party for anyone who doesn’t know, was not in good
standing with the voters.
But, Scott Morrison, just like Trump, and unlike the Democrats, got
out there on the ground in the community, and actually listened to
the people he called the “quiet Australians”.
He made himself, for lack of a batter word, relatable, and didn’t
patronize ordinary people for not digging the “woke” narrative of
the Labor party.
He, also like Trump, has unapologetically strong views on illegal
immigration, and masterminded what we call operation Sovereign
Borders, which prevents illegal immigrants coming by boat from
Indonesia from gaining immediate access to Australia.
Scott Morrison also has his own affectionate nickname, Scomo, and
while he’s not known for quite so many catchphrases as Trump, he
has publicised the slang, “How good is”
Perhaps then, it’s these similarities between the two world leaders
that make The Donald and Scomo get on so well?
Adorable!
The antithesis to Scott Morrison is former leader of the Labor Party
Bill Shorten.
Bill led the party right up until this year’s federal
election, which, obviously, he lost in spectacular fashion, and thus
stepped down as leader.
However, Bill, for the last few years, has been swanning around quite literally like
he owned the place.
He bought right into the media and social media
narrative that he and Labor were absolute shoe ins for government.
The platform Bill ran on was very much in line with the woke, climate
change alarmism narrative that normal people just don’t buy, but
don’t talk about it for fear of public ridicule.
Nevertheless, Bill campaigned so hard on the renewable energy
schtick that, even when asked a number of times, he refused to
give the cost of his climate change plan.
Obviously, your average voter is going to prick up their ears at this
kind of stuff, because greater government costs means higher taxes,
which nobody with any sense wants to pay.
And considering Bill was honest to God refusing to say how much this
plan would cost, we all assumed it would cost quite a lot.
But, because Bill Shorten had this kind of born to rule, entitled
attitude, which was mirrored by the rest of his party, he thought the
little people would just go along with it, because that’s what Twitter
and The Guardian were telling him.
Then, when Labor lost, he and his party blamed literally everyone but
themselves.
They patronised those who didn’t vote for them by
saying they simply didn’t understand Labor’s grand progressive
plans.
They also insisted that the media was against them, which is,
of course, a load of crap considering how anti-Liberal party and anti-
conservative most journalists tend to be.
So, consider this; here you have an establishment politician, from a
left-wing party, with a born to rule mentality who thinks he’s entitled
to the Prime Ministership.
He runs on a radical climate change, identity politics driven platform, and patronises
anyone who disagrees with him.
Then, when he loses unexpectedly, he and his Party blame a host of
increasingly outlandish external factors, rather than knuckling down
and admitting that maybe, just maybe, their campaign wasn’t very
good.
Now…who does all of that remind you of?
Yep, Bill Shorten is Australia’s very own Hillary Clinton.
The parallels between his story and persona and hers are
quite uncanny.
That’s why we call him “Billary”.
Alexandria Occasio-Cortez, nicknamed AOC, or as I like to call her,
Red Cortez, is another one who really needs no introduction.
Campaigning as a democratic socialist, Red is a climate change
alarmist who regularly puts her foot in it in the media and on Twitter.
She also proposed a Green New Deal earlier this year, the
recommendations of which included getting rid of farting cows, and
renovating every single building in America, including people’s
private homes, with or without the consent of the owners, to make
them more environmentally friendly.
While we, thankfully, don’t have any mainstream politician in
Australia who is singing the praises of an all-encompassing socialist
regime, we do have our own little climate change alarmist, identity
politics pushing, gaffe-making Greenie in Sarah Hanson Young,
whose name is also shortened to three initials.
SHY, or shy, is our AOC.
SHY is also known for publicly putting her foot in it.
While AOC raised a number of eyebrows with this rather sinister
moral posturing
Sarah is known for believing a fictional television show called Sea
Patrol was actually a very much non-fiction documentary about the
coastguard…all of which came out in the most unfortunate place; a
Senate estimates hearing
Well, there’s not much else you can say to that, really, is
there?
New York Senator and Leader of the Democratic Caucus, Chuck
Schumer, is one of the most irritating politicians in the world.
He’s one of those people who talks a lot but says
very little, aside from flapping his hands while clinging to the moral
high ground and compulsively tweeting about how much he hates
Trump.
He is really one of the most insufferably self-righteous people I have
ever come across.
Anyway, Chuck really caught my attention in 2017,
just after Trump had instigated his travel ban, with this moment of
emotional incontinence
Ugh.
As it turns out, Australia has its own version of the perpetually
moralising and insufferable Chuck Schumer in left wing darling
Richard Di Natale.
They even kind of look alike.
Now, Richard is the leader of the Australian Greens; a minor party
that is best described as somewhere to the left of Bernie
Richard is the quintessential example of someone on the regressive
left who is quick to condemn any kind of tiny transgression, however
out of context, in his political opposition, but is perfectly happy to
excuse even worse bad behaviour if it comes from his own side.
Like the time just before the election when he
did not denounce his Greens candidate for the Northern Territory
George Hanna, who called Liberal candidate Jacinta Price, who
is Indigenous, as is Hanna, a “coconut”.
This is an appalling racial slur, and implies that the recipient is black
on the outside, white on the inside.
It’s similar to calling a conservative woman an internalised misogynist.
I guess, according to Richard, racism is okay when it’s directed
at conservatives.
Anyway, Richard is one of those lefties who goes on and on about so-
called “hate speech”, which really just means speech he doesn’t like,
or is critical of his politics.
He drew some ire in May, again, just before the election, when he suggested that
there should be gag laws on the media
This attitude is worrying for obvious reasons, but I can pinpoint
exactly where came from in this instance.
A week or so before Richard made these comments, he had appeared
on Andrew Bolt’s show The Bolt Report and attempted to accuse
Andrew and the right generally of hate speech.
It did not go well for
Richard
Considering the through thrashing he received at the hands of
Andrew Bolt, it’s no wonder Richard would like laws instigated to
block Andrew’s speech.
Well, there you have it, Australia and America’s political
doppelgangers.
Let me know what you think of this video; if it gets
5000 likes, maybe I’ll do some more Australia vs America content.