While the world watches agog, preparing for an increasingly plausible second coming of Donald Trump. Our own opposition leader is paying more attention than most.
He lacks Trump’s bouffant, chutzpah and rap sheet, but Dutton’s path to power charts a similar trajectory. Harness legitimate anger at late-stage capitalism to cast an erstwhile party of business as the champion of the common folk.
In opposition, Dutton has not so much given up on the Teal inner city seats as told them he’s no longer interested in their patronage.
Declaring war on the elites in a bid to entice those from outer metro and regional areas into the fold.
Like Trump, Dutton has honed his skills exploiting identity politics. His campaign to silence the Indigenous voice to parliament was a successful trial run.
But the election will be the main game where he will attempt to nuke renewables and weaponize immigration.
Donald Trump Diversity:
Like Trump, he will rail against the woke corporate elites, hyperventilating about their diversity.
And inclusion programs while locking in their material interests.
And like Trump he will deploy Murdoch’s distribution platform which will dress up his constant stream of bad takes and thought bubbles as strong leadership while plastering over the rougher edges.
Will Dutton’s Trump shtick work? Findings in his week’s Guardian Essential Report shows Australians are feeling significantly.
More positively towards Trump than at the chaotic end of his presidency.
Note that among both Coalition and minor party voters Trump is more favourable than Kamala Harris. Also striking is the strong support for Trump among those who self-identify as struggling financially and those who are now union members.
The sense of doom that surrounded the 2016 election has also lifted, with the number of respondents. Concerned Trump would be worse for Australia’s relations with the United States plummeting from 63% in July 2016 to just 37% today.
Both Trump and Dutton are attempting to tap a vein of discontent that is grounded in a lived experience. The rise of global corporate power, the destruction of secure jobs, rising levels of inequality.
