For Donald Trump’s many supporters and advocates in Australia, yesterday was a defining moment. Either they support democracy and free and fair elections, or they don’t. Many, it seems, do not.
Whether they’re on the lunatic fringe of right-wing politics here, or in the ranks of the Morrison government, or lurking in the commentariat at News Corp, or capering on Sky News, Trump supporters have ignored four years of the trashing of many of the values and institutions that they claim to hold dear.
But Trump’s insistence that he won the election, and his efforts to halt counting in states where he is ahead while supporting the continuation of counting in states where he is behind, has to be a clear line for anyone professing to support democracy.
In 2016, Trump won legitimately. Progressives and Democrats have resented the result ever since, and tried to blame Russian interference (with considerable justification), fake news and a failed media. Many never wanted to accept that Trump tapped into a deep resentment toward business-as-usual politics in the United States.
But the refusal of Republicans to accept election outcomes has always been much more than rhetorical — it motivated a systematic program of voter suppression via the purging of rolls, legal restrictions on voting and campaigns to deter turnout.
Trump supporters and conservatives in Australia have turned a blind eye to that anti-democratic behaviour, and some even dreamed of using it as a template to restrict voting here.
Outright refusal to accept the legitimate results of elections, however, is a step into clear authoritarianism — ironic given how much Trump enthusiasts profess to support freedom. Attempts to use courts to litigate away appropriately cast ballots that don’t favour your candidate demonstrates a contempt for democracy.
Trump’s behaviour was thus a test for how people view democracy. It was a test many failed. Marise Payne, Australia’s foreign minister, said nothing last night as Australia’s most important ally teetered on the brink of a coup.
For Payne, tweeting about Tonga was more important than the trashing of US democracy. Finally, this morning, she was shamed into saying every vote should be counted and she was “confident that they will be”. Scott Morrison, when pressed this morning, refused to even go as far as Payne went.
Joe Hockey went the other way, insisting that electoral fraud had taken place. “There’s plenty of good reason to have litigation,” Hockey said. His evidence — bizarre even for a Trump nutter — was that there was a strong vote for Biden in Washington DC.
Hockey’s lobbying business will benefit from Trump’s continued occupancy of the White House, so Joe is thinking with his chequebook, but it was an effective endorsement of Trump’s attack on democracy.
At The Australian and the AFR, many were too busy celebrating Trump’s performance — and what they thought was his victory — to condemn his attack on democracy.
Right-wing columnist Tom Switzer could only bring himself to refer to Trump’s attempted coup as “boorishness”, as if a fundamental attack on democracy was akin to some bad manners. Paul Kelly celebrated — at his usual bloviating length — Trump’s “miracle win“. Chris Kenny cheered what he thought was a Trump victory. So did Greg Sheridan.
None of them were the slightest bit perturbed by Trump’s attack on democracy and refusal to accept the result.
Peter van Onselen, to his credit, once again resisted the house line.
There’s a fundamental question here for Kelly, Kenny, Sheridan, Switzer, Jennifer Hewett and other reactionaries — and for Morrison and Payne. Do you actually believe in democracy, or only when your own side wins? At what point does the trashing of democracy and efforts to silence the votes of people who don’t support you become repellent?
Or — as seems to be the case — is it OK because in the broader scheme of things it’s more important that the “right” candidate wins?
Trump’s behaviour leaves his supporters with nowhere to hide. Many have decided it’s Trump first, democracy second.
I assume your questions are rhetorical. Since Trump’s ascendency its been pretty clear that hypocrisy is dead on that side of politics, gaining and holding power is the game – one that can be cheated only in their favor.
It well and truly precedes Trump’s ascendancy. I was going to suggest that Trump just toxified it, but I suspect Mitch McConnell did that…
Agree – but now they didn’t hide it anymore. That was initially Trump biggest sin – just saying the quiet thing out loud. Since there hardly was a backlash, they jumped on the same train.
And Mitch McConnell is still there.
Biden is a transformation to what ?
All those singing Hosannas in anticipation of DJT being shown the door have clearly given no thought to what is coming in through the door. It will not be Peace and Bread, either within or without the United States.
If Biden wins I am looking forward to the News Corp ratbaggerati tying themselves in knots attempting to justify a coup d’etat.
They will not tie themselves in knots. They’ll just call for order to be restored, with violence if that’s what it takes, after Biden’s coup d’etat.
Trump is openly saying votes for Biden are ipso facto fraudulent, it follows that Trump is the real winner and anyone saying otherwise is seizing power from the true president (for life).
Trump is openly lying I think you mean, out of naked self interest, as per usual. But nice of you to drive home the point of this article for us.
“Trump is openly lying…” is surely so obvious it would be insulting to point it out.
Even if Biden wins, Biden won’t “win” in the eyes of News Corp. They’ve already set the groundwork with baseless claims of fraud.
Not sure about that, apparently an ex senior Obama aide has just accepted an editorial / management role at Fox News HQ. Murdoch is always quick to a fall back position, and adapt to new circumstances .
Maybe Trump’s coup scaremongering is really about an attempt to plea bargain when/if he is ejected from the WH. Some are suggesting he will either end up broke or in jail after his exit, once he loses his presidential immunity. The real , underlying message from Trump maybe – ” grant me the necessary presidential pardons and I’ll go quietly”.
Presidential pardons can only be given to federal crimes.
Which is a pity but there are at least 3 states which have already indicted Trump under their statutes,mostly fraud (sic!),tax evasion and insurance.
Buy popcorn shares, it’s a growth stock.
Rewriting the American Constitution to curtail the powers of the Presidency is a critical move for democracy in the US.
Arguably, the constitution is already adequate in that respect. The president exercises excessive power only because Congress is packed with servile boot-lickers who seldom if ever act to restrain the president, and certainly will not do so if the president is from their party. But it goes further than that, most of those in Congress will only stand up to the president if they are confident they will not lose their seat as a result. In other words, they will not defy their local party because that would get them thrown out during the next primary. From that point of view it looks almost democratic – the representatives are responding to their constituency. Almost. Looked at this way, the real problem for democracy in the USA is that around half of American voters don’t much like democracy, they actually want to be subjects of a despotic authoritarian quasi-monarch with unrestricted power. And that’s democracy in action…
Maggie, I think you will find the problem is not their Constitution, but it has been that the Congress and the Senate in the USA has given, through legislation and appropriations, too much discretion and power to the president. And it’s much much worse in Australia with what is called ‘responsible government’ in that the Executive has the confidence of the HoR which almost guarantees legislation giving unfettered power to the Executive is passed. The proof is all the legislation which gives Ministers discretion to in effect, make laws by fiat. There is even a provision in the FMA Act that purports to empower the Finance Minister to move funding from one appropriation to another, contrary to parliament’s appropriation! At least in the US their committees do subpoena witnesses and demand the provision of documents and information, whereas here the Senate committees just meekly accept any refusal to hand over information.
True.
Trump has demonstrated the fine art of the ‘con’. He found the flinch point and convinced his supporters that he could change things and along the way that he isn’t a part of that corrupt, venal worship of power and mammon that had done them in. And they bought it hook line and sinker, and sadly still do.
Trump is not and never has been a ‘working class’ person. While they died in Vietnam he conjured up his ‘bonespurs’ and worked hard to avoid getting an STD. From there he has dudded the American tax payers, and the banks, it seems (although again it’s probable that the workers pay for that through their pension funds). The former should make ordinary tax payers angry but some, too many, seem convinced that doing that, having others pay for your confidence tricks, is an indication that you are ‘smart’.
That’s real concern for people writ large over the top of greed.
Yes – one way of looking at it is that Trump is a genius con-man. I think there’s another side as well, which is too many people who have lost their critical faculties (or never learned them in the first place). By no means I mean unintelligent, but for one reason or another are unable to see the bigger picture which has led to this situation in the first place.
True.
“Trump supporters and conservatives in Australia have turned a blind eye to that anti-democratic behaviour…”
Let’s add ABC Radio National’s Fran Kelly to that list. This morning, while actually talking about Trump’s demand to stop counting votes cast for his opponent, she described the USA as the world’s greatest democracy, without any qualification.
Thanks for the example. The audience for the ABC was more or less educated once upon a time. That one can make such blyth statements with impunity illustrates the nature of the audience nowadays. I have recommended (on these pages) that the ABC be wound up.
Democracy is a temporary concession for the wealthy.