Back in 2020 I wrote about the ‘3 amigos’, consisting of Trump in the US, Johnson in the UK, and Morrison in Australia. Read it here: https://askbucko.com/2020/03/24/thrhttps://askbucko.com/2020/03/24/three-amigos/ee-amigos/
The three of them were destroying their respective countries’ response to Covid-19, by a mixture of cack-handed capitalistic measures, when they tried to outsmart a virus, and to re-open their economies before time. In each case the large corporates stood to gain the most in dollar terms, never mind the carnage.
All three had no respect for science, or expertise, and were each, in their own individual ways, beholden to the corporate state, and the neo-liberal ideology. It is impossible to calculate the damage and the actual deaths they caused, but in each of those nations the people know in their hearts the harm they sowed.
Of course it is inescapable that Trump is back. He has pretty much destroyed the old world order, he has started or continued several wars, he has taken to waging war not only on Iran, but also on individual fishing vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
He has eviscerated U.S.A.I.D., causing untold misery and death in the third World; he has bullied and alienated all his old allies, including NATO and Australia; he has continued to fund Israel’s genocidal wars; he has taken Russia’s side against Ukraine; he wants to appropriate (steal or conquer) Canada, Greenland and now Cuba. Oh, he also invaded Venezuela and kidnapped their president.
He has virtually shut down America’s health infrastructure, impoverished most of the country’s farmers, enabled the American oligarchy to run rampant, and removed most of the country’s welfare net. All in all, a total, unmitigated disaster, both for his own country and much of the world.
He has also spent billions of dollars nobbling America’s transition to renewable power, and stupidly caused the fossil fuel industry to the edge of collapse, by making fuel so expensive that his citizens have swung further toward a clean energy transition.
Trump has upended much of the status quo around the world, but his dismantling of America’s democratic system and his delusion that he is a king, has caused absolute havoc.
There are more than two years to run in his presidency, and it is undisputed that repairing America’s governance, its finances, and its ‘soft power’ may not be fully possible. He has ruined America’s reputation, and except for his slavishly devoted followers, is the most unpopular president ever.
2. Nigel Farage
A man in Trump’s image. A liar, a chronic failure until he took hold of Trump’s coat-tails; a sort of poisonous spiv who, as Trump does, appeals to racists, and people who don’t read.
Again, like Trump, he never misses an opportunity to enrich himself. He has a talent for self promotion, and has turned his modest communication skills into a force for evil.
He has captured the grumpy, resentful nature of a Britain which has been beaten down by fourteen years of Conservative rule, and then by the massive own goal of Brexit. He was an early founder of the UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party), which describes itself as “the party of the patriotic, working class and believe Christianity should be put back into the heart of government.”
He wants to follow in Trump’s footsteps, and he is well on his way to leading the UK to social division, extreme poverty, and isolation on the world stage. His goal is to punish the poor, allow the rich to become even richer, and by slashing immigration, return to a white, Christian nation. He is, like many of his followers, anti-expert.
3. Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson, has been around for more than thirty years. She is an embarassment to the country (Australia) and she is merely seizing her opportunity. She is surging in the polls, and her policy platform has seen her enjoying a rare moment in the sun.
She was originally outraged that we were being “swamped by Asians”, which has been changed to now read “swamped by Muslims”. As both Trump and Farage have done, she has capitalised on the feelings of grumpy and resentful voters, who believe the economic woes and difficulty with cost of living pressures are solely due to immigration.
Like her role models she is backed by an absurdly wealthy patron, and her list of grievances is identical to the other two. If it is sensible or even necessary, she is against it.
She is a climate change denier, anti immigration, rudely dismissive of the indigenous community and their contribution, against abortion, against gender equality and gender fluidity, a supporter of men’s rights over womens’, and white Christianity. In a tip of the hat to her patron, she is also against tax reform, which in Australia has always favoured the rich over the poor. She would also like to cut welfare. Her utopia is captured by the word “monoculture”.
The rise of the extreme right in times of economic change and dislocation was predictable, but sadly it has coincided with the rise of these opportunists, who, like Mussolini and Hitler, seize the moment, but eventually lead their countries to destruction.
The added spectre of climate change, already so visible in our everyday lives, merely makes our electoral choices so much more important.
Because their policies always lead to unsustainable inequality, in the greater sweep of history, the pendulum will swing back. The march of human progress and the gradual achievement of human rights, has created expectations in ‘the people’, and there is no power stronger than people power.
Should the swing to extreme rightist policies continue to prosper, all we can hope for is a peaceful reversal. If not, then societal collapse and revolution beckon. Their pipedreams of happy little communities sitting behind walls, is just that. A pipedream.
