Don’t wait for a political saviour

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Lead Editorial

13 November 2024
Vol. 26 No. 46

The Donald Trump roller coaster ride has begun. On the weekend, Trump killed speculation and delighted many supporters by announcing that neocon warmongers Mike Pompeo, his former Secretary of State and CIA Director, and Nikki Hayley, his former UN Ambassador, will not be in his administration. But with Pompeo clone Brian Hook in charge of his State Department transition team, Trump then announced that neocon warmonger Marco Rubio will be his Secretary of State and neocon warmonger Elise Stefanik will be his UN Ambassador. He also announced neocon warmonger Congressman Mike Waltz will be his National Security Advisor, and ultra-religious Christian Zionist former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee will be Ambassador to Israel.

With respect to Israel and China, none of these appointments are surprising, as Trump has aligned closely with Netanyahu—no real difference to Biden, but without the pretend disapproval of Israel’s actions—and promised tough negotiations with China. But regarding Ukraine they fly in the face of his oft-stated position that he will end the war, as every single appointee is on record supporting keeping the war going. Trump likes to claim that he uses warmongers as a negotiating tactic, i.e. (paraphrasing) “accept my deal or this guy will start a war on you”. He says this is how he used criminal neocon John Bolton against North Korea. But whatever he tells himself, he’s playing with fire.

It’s incumbent on Americans who truly want to end US wars and co-exist peacefully, who voted for Trump because he vocalised that position, to hold him accountable. Unlike last time, when too many Trump supporters got scammed by the QAnon fraud, which convinced them Trump was their saviour, that behind every public move was a secret, fourth-dimensional chess move to “drain the swamp”, and they should “trust the plan”. This muted their anger at the many things Trump did against his election promises, including keeping the Syria war going. Without being held accountable by his core supporters, Trump gave free rein to the likes of Mike Pompeo— the man who plotted to kill Julian Assange even though Trump said in 2016 “I love WikiLeaks”—who fueled many of the situations that have the world at a crisis point today.

But the roller coaster went up again when Trump gave a very hard-hitting, prepared speech against the agenda to censor social media on the pretext of mis- and disinformation. He put the US government on notice that anyone who has been involved in censoring social media will be fired. This is also a shot across Australia’s bow, because Anthony Albanese’s MAD censorship bill is leading the censorship agenda worldwide.

Australians should not buy into the saviour complex, however. On 12 November, Senator Malcolm Roberts tweeted: “URGENT – @DonaldJTrumpJr – Situation critical. The Australian government is wanting to destroy free speech and censor X (plus other networks) with the appalling Misinformation and Disinformation Bill. To be voted on next week.  We need your help to defend Australian democracy…” But Trump isn’t going to stop a bill in Australia, even though his speech may have an impact on Albanese’s thinking, especially as most of the big social media platforms are owned in the USA.

Actually stopping the bill is our responsibility. And we’re well on the way to doing it, by mobilising unprecedented numbers of Australians to take responsibility for contacting MPs and Senators to demand they oppose it. When the bill was debated in the House of Representatives last week, all the contributors acknowledged they are receiving thousands of calls. This week Independent Senators Tammy Tyrrell and David Pocock declared they oppose it, and the Sydney Morning Herald is predicting the government won’t get the three independents they need to pass it, assuming Greens support.

This is the approach we need to take on every issue, including to achieve an independent foreign policy so Australia stops supporting US wars—whatever Trump does.

In this week's issue: 

• Hearings prove Albanese is lying—MAD bill will censor political opinions. Throw it out!
• Barnaby Joyce warns Labor: MAD bill will cost you government
• Australians pierce the foreign policy propaganda of both major parties
• The Richard Boyle case: just what is public interest?
• Western leaders eye BRICS alternative
• Creating ‘new principles for international relations’: Putin
• Memo to Libertarians: Protecting the ‘free market’ is protecting the financial elite
• Academic paper: US banking system less safe than before ‘reforms’
• India-China relations far from black and white
• The MADness of nuclear targeting: Daniel Ellsberg and the Doomsday Machine
• What will the Trump victory bring?
• ACP supports freedom of speech and whistleblowers
• Going ‘back to nature’: Green policies and the Valencia disaster
• ALMANAC: MAD bill is ‘information warfare’

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