Do you consider yourself a progressive?
Are you angry at the re-election of Donald Trump?
Can we agree that prevention is better than a cure? Given how hard it is to impeach let alone remove a president, prevention is must be the only option?
Trump was elected the second time for many of the reasons he was elected the first time. Deeply unhappy people exercising their democratic rights. But democracy goes both ways.
There is no point in continuing to read this post if you are the type of person who finds it amusing or acceptable to insult you opposition in debate or discussion or dismisses anyone’s opinion based on their wider political views. If we could agree that it’s entirely possible for a rational and informed person to vote for a different political party to you. Could we also agree these people might not be evil or selfish, just hold a different view or priority. If you agree, you must also consider many of the people who voted for Trump felt America would be better off under his leadership. Trump is doing what he said he would, vastly speaking. Nobody should be surprised.
It’s important to understand our failures if we ever want to succeed in the future. Likewise, moderates and socialists need to understand exactly why they failed, and in this case, why some moderates voted for Trump. Because they did.
Lets look at some of the reasons why people may have voted for Trump. I have lifted these points from popular themes in interviews and podcasts. Not at all scientific. I would like to provide a caveat that I was unable to garnish themes from legacy media (traditional media, news outlets) because they seem to be unprepared to accept the Biden administration did anything wrong. If you are in this camp, may I invite you to investigate just some of the accusations levelled at the Biden Family. That was indeed Hunter Biden’s laptop. Joe Biden’s desperation to become president cost the life of his first wife and daughter. Joe Biden blatantly plagiarised speeches on more than one occasion.
Like the Trumps they used the Presidency to enrich themselves. But they are not alone. Using public office to become rich is standard practise in all countries. Our own Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese bought his girlfriend a $4.5M beach house during a housing crisis he promised to fix. It’s clear western democracies desperately need political and bureaucratic reform. Nobody should be able to enrich themselves from a career that contributes so little. All levels of government administration, elected or appointed, should have maximum terms. Politicians and Pubic Servants should hail from ordinary careers and backgrounds. To represent us they need to understand us. Our societies and economies are built wealth that originates from commerce, they are rule based. It appears that Politicians and Senior Bureaucrats have become above the law. It is now easier to remove a CEO than an elected official, and somewhat impossible to remove a senior bureaucrat. Congress by Wealth
The Hijacking of science
Calling to core human feelings of joy, sadness, fear, anger, and desire has always been effective in political speeches. It’s certainly a lot easier than proving something though academic rigour. With the elevation of humanities departments to the same level as established branches of science in universities, we have degraded the respect science has in the populace. Climate alarmism and covid panic eroded decades of respect. The bureaucrats pushing mandatory curfews became the boy who cried wolf. The bureaucrats pushing net-zero ignored rising energy costs and attempted to associate any-and-all weather events with climate change.
The undermining of fairness
In most western societies we have now legislated to force commercial and government organisations to prioritise candidates from minority backgrounds. The concept asks us to accept that all minorities must have endured more hardship, and thus deserve a higher priority for reward than someone who might otherwise be more qualified or experienced. In a nutshell, the opposite mechanism that made our societies so successful. At the same time we are doubling the headcount in government organisations (increasing debt and taxation) while simultaneously accusing the commercial sector of gouging. The truth is the cost of doing business has risen because of the requirements of a growing bureaucratic class and increased energy costs.
The demonisation of masculinity
When things go wrong people look for someone or something to blame. Ten minutes on Reddit and you’ll believe most people in Australia are unhappy with their lives. Even wealthy bored people will find someone less fortunate who has been duped. Irrespective of the historical successes of capitalist democracies we feel they have failed us. Those who are more successful (than us) must have cheated somehow, Unless of course they are attractive or from one of the ore-approved minorities.
As offensive as it may be to some people, fair skinned Judaeo-Christian males were, at least for the last thousand years, mostly responsible for forming western democracies. Given the choice, it’s western democracies that are the most sought after places to live. You don’t set your car on fire if it breaks down, why should you do that to your city? Looking casually around at who has garnered wealth: Judaeo-Christian males are overwhelmingly over represented. Does this then correspond that white men have somehow cheated the system or that the system is engineered to give them an unfair advantage? If you are comfortable with false equivalences, well yes it does. False Equivalence
Taking a closer look at public wealth data, you’ll see the current top 4 wealthiest people are white males. But the moment you start digging around you’ll see an interesting change. The youngest individuals or especially interesting, the fastest accumulating wealthy individuals. Almost no white men.
Yes, inter-generational wealth is a huge advantage. But unless you are prepared to execute entire families in a French Revolution or Cultural Revolution styled event, rich people will always have an advantage. I would like everyone to understand: no sensible person supports punishment from ancestral behaviour. Yet further financial repatriation is being actively sought by Australian political parties even though the majority of Australian voters do not support it.
It’s a fact of nature that males of many species are simply more capable of inflicting damage because there was a biological need to be fight. In modern Australia we expect powerful men to risk their lives to defend us, in peacetime we ostracise them. History will teach us again the dangers of rewarding the weak.
People with more to lose are more likely to adhere to social rules and norms. A lot of hatred being aimed at successful men is nothing more than garden variety envy. We know from dealing with juvenile offenders that young men need strong male influence, yet so many educated women actively support the degradation of masculine influences. The irony when they take to social media to lament the loss of attractive men as suitors. Our western populations decline as men and women can no longer tolerate the differences were used to be attracted to.
The in-authenticity of modern leftism
Despite the desperate attempts by the left to deflect ‘virtue signalling’ as their moniker, it has become stuck on like tar and feathers. How is this surprising when left leaning politicians and celebrities are telling us to be kind and generous when they are not. People that rely on favourable public opinion need causes that appeal to the working class. The British Royal Family involve themselves with charities, celebrities with social movements. This is so they can present themselves as being grateful and generous.
The wealthy only donate as much wealth as they can spare in tax liability, the ultra-wealthy engineer foundations or charities so that can transparently dissipate wealth and enjoy international travel at no cost. If they were real believers in equality or global warming they could give up their money and international travel. In western countries socialism is nothing more than a smokescreen. While there could be enough for most people to share, there will never be enough for some. I learnt that when I was a child watching litters of puppies and kittens. We are not above nature. We are part of it. The people spruiking humans are above nature are simply disconnected from it and the realities of life. The idea that we can harness natures great power or destroy it at our will. We are nothing more than intelligent apes, and we’ll probably make ourselves extinct from loosing the will to live and reproduce. Not from climate change.