So there's an Australian federal election today (the polls in the Eastern states close in 20 minutes), and apparently we have top-level posts for Five Eyes federal elections.
So, here's a top-level post for the Australian federal election. Polls are predicting a Labour landslide (thanks Obama Trump, we really needed all that friendly fire), but we live in the age of Shy Tories so one can never be 100% sure.
I just voted; below the line all the way (I would have voted above the line, except for the whole "I like the Nationals a lot more than the Liberals" thing), and I didn't even get to eat democracy sausage afterward. So now I'm cranky and miserable, though that might also be because I've been up for 24 hours or so.
One Nation didn't actually show up at the polling place I went to, which was odd; they did last time, though it moved a few streets over.
I think I voted lower on the Libertarian Party than I otherwise would have due to not realising they were the Liberal Democrats and/or vaguely recalling something about a joint ticket with Clive Palmer. Whoops.
I rate myself as like a 3/10 on engagement this election; I'm usually more active about pushing civil defence, even if it's basically yelling at a brick wall.
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Notes -
Look at which way the "in doubt" seats are leaning. Labour'll be in the 90s. And 1996's Coalition seats are not by themselves a good measure of how devastating this is, because the crossbench was much smaller then - Labour still won 49 seats in 1996, while the Coalition is currently looking at low 40s. The last left-wing blowout this big was, uh, 1943, and that one was the one that killed the original UAP and birthed the Liberals (the last right-wing blowout this big was 1975, after Whitlam pulled enough shenanigans to earn himself a Monarch Interrupt).
I will note that the ABC people talking about how Dutton lost by focusing on culture wars amounts to basically code/false-consciousness for "we've got a lock on the culture wars in Australia; defy SJ and you lose". I'm not sure that's true, though; the Voice referendum proved that SJ does not have a full lock. The really-nasty part is that Western anti-SJ has a voice, and a face, and a name - Donald Trump - and he's utter poison in the Australian electorate because the Borderer culture that props up Trumpism is alien to Australia and Trump himself is obviously not very good at governance (or very friendly to Australia).
I tend to agree about cultural politics - I was cringeing inwardly when Penny Wong and Albo both doubled down on some of the indigenous stuff during their victory speeches. The Voice would seem to show that even when the Opposition itself is unpopular, there is very little appetite in Australia for SJ-tinted institutional change.
However, as you say, the American or Trumpist style does not work in Australia at all, and is experienced as both alienating and repulsive by most Australians. I think we've seen some of that with Jacinta Price, for instance, or Dutton's failed experiment with 'government efficiency' ideas, or with the completely unsuccessful Trumpet of Patriots. There is a strong element of resistance to, or at the very least skepticism of, SJ ideas in Australia, but Trumpism is not the way to access it. They will need to find a more distinctively Australian way of articulating the criticism.
This is my read too. There is an anti-SJW undercurrent, but it can't be accessed by apeing Trumpism. Someone in Australian politics may eventually figure out how to tap that vein and I hope they do.
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