We've Got Some International Elections To Talk About!
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We've Got Some International Elections To Talk About!
Two steps backward, one step up.
There is a lot going on in the United States right now — but there’s also a lot going around the world (even aside from that).
New Zealand
New Zealand, which is usually pretty cool and notably very secular about things, has just elected former deodorant salesman Christopher Luxon as prime minister. Luxon, the head of the right-wing National Party is a fundamentalist Christian and the word around town is that he is a creationist who believes the earth is 6,000 years old, much like fellow New Zealander Ray Comfort.
However, I took a look at his actual record and as scary as he seems on paper … he’s actually on the same page as many US Democrats on several issues and does not appear to actively/vocally hate LGBTQ+ people. So … yay?
Australia
Not so much an actual election as a very important referendum this past Saturday on whether or not to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution and give them a voice in parliament with an advisory board that would weigh in on issues affecting indigenous people.
That seems like a fairly basic courtesy, no? These people lived there for 60,000 years and you came to their house and built your country on top of them, the least you could do would be to include them in some things now and again. Not that we’re ones to talk, but still. But it did not pass. In fact, 60 percent of the country voted against it, which is very, very depressing.
Via Reuters:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people make up 3.8% of Australia's 26 million population and have inhabited the country for about 60,000 years. But they are not mentioned in the constitution and the country's most disadvantaged people by most socioeconomic measures.
"It's very clear that reconciliation is dead," Marcia Langton, an architect of the Voice, said on NITV. "I think it will be at least two generations before Australians are capable of putting their colonial hatreds behind them and acknowledging that we exist."
Reconciliation Australia, an Indigenous body, said the community was left to grapple with the "ugly acts of racism and disinformation" that they said were a feature of the debate.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had pushed for the referendum to take place, apparently unaware of the fact that 60 percent of the country would show their asses in such a vote. Leaders of conservative opposition parties are now criticizing the move, which they say just “divided” the people of Australia. Because that is the big problem, not that people are being super racist.
Even more depressing is the fact that white supremacists around the world are very excited about it. Multiple known neo-Nazis — including Matt Parrot, cofounder of the now defunct Traditionalist Worker party — shared a missive on Telegram from Australian neo-Nazi Joel Davis about how this was a clear triumph for racists.
Lefties are seething that Australia's international reputation as a racist country has been reinforced by the referendum, like as if the will of the Australian people is worth less than the opinions of foreigners. This exposes the leftist mindset for what it is - fundamentally anti-Australian.
Leftists are not fellow Australians with which we merely have political disagreements. They are enemies of the nation worthy of nothing from us but total derision. They have no loyalty to our nation, no respect for our nation, they are 'global citizens' who will our destruction as a nation and race. We must teach right-wing Australians to see them as such.
Gosh, they’re really the same all over.
The vote was also popular among people like noted Pizzagate idiot Jack Posobiec, who posted on Telegram that “Leftists in Australia tried to adopt a batshlit crazy reform to the Constitution which would have creates a whole new government body in Parliament representing ‘marginalized groups.’”
It was also popular on the QAnon boards, but you all don’t need to see that. In fact, let’s take Posobiec up on this one and do “Poland next!”
Poland
So weird that the actual good news is coming from Poland of all places, the place the American far Right has long considered something of a test kitchen for their bullshit.
In what many Poles saw as the most important election in decades, the country largely voted for opposition parties to the current ruling faction, the far-right Law and Justice party that has been in power for the last eight years now.
The Law and Justice party did get more votes than any other individual party, but since three of the opposition parties combined take up 248 seats out of 460 seats in the lower house of parliament, “Law and Justice” won’t actually be able to do anything.
The largest of these parties is the Civic Coalition, led by former Polish PM and European Union president Donald Tusk.
“I have been a politician for many years. I’m an athlete. Never in my life have I been so happy about taking seemingly second place. Poland won. Democracy has won. We have removed them from power,” Tusk said in a speech to his supporters, the AP reported.
“This result might still be better, but already today we can say this is the end of the bad time, this is end of Law and Justice rule,” he added.
Na zdrowie, Poland! (Or as I once thought, “nice driveway!”)
Ecuador
Thirty-five-year-old Daniel Noboa, the inexperienced heir to a banana fortune (not a euphemism), is the new president of Ecuador. So far, it does not seem like a good thing, as one of his campaign promises was … putting people on prison ships. Also the anti-corruption candidate in the race was assassinated in August, which reportedly shook things up a little (not surprising!). Also the election was held early because the previous president, Guillermo Lasso, didn’t want to be impeached by those who believe he maybe did some embezzling.
And The Rest!
There are no results yet for elections in Liberia or in Argentina — though the frontrunner in Argentina is Javier Milei, a popular-among-MAGA-types libertarian candidate who has said he will shut down all funding for science, the environment and health. What could possibly go wrong?
We've Got Some International Elections To Talk About!
Australian living in the USA here. I don't know how people didn't see this referendum as a Get Out Of Jail free card. Whenever I talk to someone from outside Aus and the conversation turns to Aboriginals, the conversation quickly turns to 2 facts: Interventionist policies (like the Stolen Generation) has robbed them of their culture and, noninterventionist policies have lead to a health crisis where they live 20yrs less than the average Aussie.
It's impossible to find the one that can be defended.
But this could. They get a seat at the table. They say what they want. We do that. Whatever happens, positive or negative, we can say "Well, we did what was advised. We can ask again"
That might sound a bit callous, but the difference between "The government did an action" and "The government followed the recommended action" would alleviate a lot of the criticism that Australia, and I, personally, get.
New Zealander here. Whatever his private beliefs and their relationship to his party's policies (which would be "moderate" by US standards), he will rely for a majority on the ACT and New Zealand First parties, who are the equivalent of Libertarians and the Freedom Caucus and both want to eliminate trans people from public life.