Australia’s prime minister Anthony "Albo" Albanese gave a speech on May 8. He’s given the same kind of head-in-the-clouds speech before and will depressingly do so repeatedly in the months and, who knows, years ahead. Oh, surely not years ahead! People will understand that his mass immigration and feckless border policies, his pro-Muslim anti-Israeli policies, his wrecking of reliable energy and his reckless spending policies, are destroying the country and vote him out next year. Really, then why is Joe Biden still in with a chance in November?
Why are British working-class voters getting ready to throw out the Conservative Party, even if they are a bunch of wets, i.e., socialists in drag, and embrace yet again a bunch of unreconstructed socialists who will make their lives even more miserable? Why haven’t European voters rebelled en masse against suicidal immigration policies? Present-day democracy is seriously overrated.
Churchill said democracy was the least worst system of government. Former Australian prime minister John Howard often pointed to the good sense of the Australian people. Au contraire. Maybe in the past. It is hard to pinpoint turning points. But I think Clement Attlee (Labour) surprisingly defeating Churchill (Conservative) in the July 1945 British general election was a defining event. Not the result itself but what it heralded. It brought in the National Health Service, among a raft of other social welfare measures; which, expanding over the years, have perniciously robbed people of their agency and created the dependency state.
IN: Clement Attlee.
To a greater or lesser extent this initial U.K. infection spread across Europe and North America. Think of LBJ’s Great Society programs in the mid-1960s. The result was plain to see when Covid struck. This infamous time in history (2020-2023) should be not be remembered for a relatively mild viral pandemic, whether it came out of a Chinese bat or a Chinese lab, but for wimpish citizens eager to put with any restriction on their freedom in order to be saved by their government. And we can depend upon such people to make the right political calls? I think not.
Democracy doesn’t work tolerably well because of voting rights or because of any written-down constitution enshrining, among other safeguards, the rule of law. The rule of law, whose most crucial element is that each law applies equally to everyone without favor or exception, has been torn to shreds in the United States without any change to the constitution.
There is no difference in principle between the treatment being meted out to Donald Trump by those in power and the treatment of Alexei Navalny (Russia), or Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar), or Anwar Ibrahim (Malasia), or Imran Khan (Pakistan), or any number of other leading dissident political figures outside of the so-called enlightened democratic West.
Democracy only works tolerably well when socially cohesive people are overwhelmingly decent, trusting and trust-worthy, fair-minded, imbued with common sense and, insufficiently emphasized, know what is good for them and their children. Otherwise, no piece of paper setting out the order of service is worth anything. Unfortunately, too many people in the West have been corrupted. Marxism has infected schools, institutions of higher learning, public services, and (definingly) the mainstream media and (conclusively) the courts.
Thus, first, we have mass immigration and multiculturalism; code for the dilution, degradation and eventual destruction of Judeo-Christian culture. Second, critical race theory, DEI, ESG, transgenderism and other woke affectations; code for subverting traditional Western values. Third, pro-Palestinian agitprop; code for promoting the ethos of a 7th-century "prophet" (Matthew 7:15-20) whose fruits of death and misery abound -- as reported here, responsible for over 45,000 deadly terrorist attacks since 9/11. And, of course, fourth, the crowning apocalyptic force, the cult of “climate change”; code for destroying free-market capitalism and remaking the world order.
OUT: Winston Churchill.
It follows as a matter of course that prime minister Albanese can without fearing ridicule make an otherworldly promise that the future will be made in Australia, and by an act of parliament to boot to make this daydream official. "One of the key objectives of our Future Made in Australia Act will be to help streamline international investment in national priority projects." [My emphasis.]
He envisages ‘”Australian ideas and innovations and green products” being delivered to the world. And as to the claim that Australia can’t compete, not so: “our abundance of cleaner, cheaper energy changes that equation,” he says, without an ounce of brainpower engaged.
In other words, the future belongs to us Australians, just as the Nazis delusionally thought that it belonged to them; in our case, not because of a Führer's dreams but simply because we inhabit a relatively windy and sunny continent. It is impossible to parody. Pointing out that it is windy and sunny in other places which have cheaper energy, cheaper labor, fewer and less onerous regulations, lower taxes, and are closer to world markets, would be a complete waste of time.
Epilogue: Albo is throwing another billion dollars in the way of renewable-energy carpetbaggers. The beneficiaries this time are Australian companies which fatuously claim they can build and sell solar panels in competition with China. Yet more taxpayers' dollars headed down the drain. But, at question, are those living in Australia’s decrepit democracy any longer in a fit state to see through it?
The post Is 'Our Democracy' Even Worth Saving? first appeared on The Pipeline.