For several years the focus of leftist academics, and even some Western security agencies, has been on right-wing extremism. Many academics have also focused on ‘research’ designed to counter citizens from voting for political parties regarded as ‘far-right’.
Note: this research never questioned why citizens, those adult individuals most capable of making decisions about their own welfare, would choose to vote in a way that the leftists disapproved. But it is clear the leftists are all about social control.
Most of the left’s push has focused on providing a sense of ‘balance’ to the post 9/11 world. The story goes that 9/11 shifted the focus to only one side of racial politics. The reality is very different and leftists have played this to the nth degree to work in their favour.
The recent alleged assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump has up-ended the virtue-signalling left’s rainbow lollipop la-la land. Trump has emerged as courageous, not just politically, but also physically. Compared to the noticeably ageing President Biden, Trump appears most capable of leading the free world.
Up until now, leftists have tried to disrupt those who wish to make critical judgements, especially where it requires one to make up their own mind in the face of peer-group pressure.
The left has always been good at shutting down debate and censoring its opponents. It is part of their DNA. Without censorship, the left could never achieve the level of ‘consensus’ it demands from its constituents, especially from those who do not wish to be part of their socialist experiments. History proves this point.
But the tit-for-tat security talk that has been promulgated by the left has pulled the wool over our eyes. Leftist extremists have proven to be, head for head, the greatest threat to liberal democracies. So, let’s stop pretending the left are the ‘good guys’. They’re not.
Former US President Trump is now in a unique position, but he is not everybody’s favourite. John Howard, a politician I regard as a political hero in the same vein as Sir Robert Menzies and Sir Winston Churchill, has been critical of Trump’s challenge to American democracy.
That said, even Mr Howard is aware that, without the support of the US and thousands of Australian diggers, modern Australians would be speaking a different language now. If you disagree with me, it’s because you cannot fathom that our continent was once under threat of occupation that would make so-called British colonialism seem like a cakewalk.
Appeasement doesn’t work.
In this regard, Trump has the mettle to pull us from the brink of Wokeist collapse. Further, his vice-presidential running mate, JD Vance, comes from the Rust Belt. He has a background not dissimilar to many of us who grew up in regional Australia and he is living proof of the social mobility afforded to citizens of liberal democracies, even without ‘diversity picks’.
Vance represents the people who have suffered silently while the left has tried to march through our institutions.
(If you haven’t read Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy, do yourself a favour and read it before you watch the movie version where Glenn Close delivers a brilliant performance as ‘Mamaw’. Ignore the leftist critiques, they’re the same-old, same-old nonsense.)
The question should not be how to stop citizens from voting for right-wing politicians, but to ask why they do so. Increasingly, the traditional right in Australia has drifted to the left, making the major political parties near-indistinguishable. That seems to be changing in the US and Australia, at least for now.
What we really need to ask is why are the left so keen for non-citizens to qualify as voters?
Voting rights are a privilege of citizenship. To extend the franchise to those who are not citizens or are not from a qualifying country (such as resident Commonwealth citizens in the UK) is to hand over the privilege of citizenship to foreigners. To suggest that Australia should extend the franchise to resident non-citizens (as has been suggested recently), as opposed to resident Commonwealth citizens, is nothing short of betrayal.
Those leftists advocating non-citizen voting rights are looking to increase the voter market, where they can buy votes through welfare payments or increased privileges for non-citizens. Prove me wrong.
A recent GOP bill that requires voters to provide documentation to register to vote in the US attempts to address the perceived lack of integrity of the US electoral system. Fact-checkers, themselves suffering in the integrity stakes, have pointed out that non-citizens already cannot vote in US elections. But that doesn’t mean the left’s intent differs from the right’s concern.
The hope for a global citizenry that prevailed during the era of globalisation has been replaced by globalists hell-bent on becoming the dictatorship of the ‘useful idiots’.
A healthy scepticism is part and parcel of a ‘vigilant and informed’ citizenry. To broaden the voter base to include non-citizens is to cancel the ‘vigilant and informed’ part. And we all know how much leftists love to cancel people.
While the rougher parts of ‘pre-shooting’ Trump are still an area for concern, I am hopeful that his ‘miracle’ will soften his approach so that he can grow to be a leader for all people, including the rest of us in the free world.
But one thing’s for sure, Trump and Vance will pull the socialist wool from our eyes. And it couldn’t come soon enough.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiqis a political scientist and political commentator. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILTA), and a Member of the Royal Society of NSW. He is National Vice President of the Telecommunications Association, Chairman of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter of CILTA, and a member of the Australian Nuclear Association. Michael is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and was appointed to the College of Experts at the Australian Research Council in 2022.
