For anyone concerned that our country might wind up in the shadow of the world's dictatorships, this election gives voters a chance to save our democracy, writes Victor Kline.
FIRST QUIZ QUESTION. Who said this, referring to Russia?
“If the Western democracies stand together... their influence will be immense and no one is likely to molest them. If, however, they become divided or falter in their duty... then indeed catastrophe may overwhelm us all.”
Perhaps you might guess French President Emmanuel Macron, British PM Keir Starmer or even former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. In fact, it was Winston Churchill, in his famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech on 5 March 1946.
Because the Western democracies did stand together, they and their allies have been able to avoid a major conflict now for almost 80 years. But the times, they are a changin’. Indeed, they are changing back to what they were when Churchill made that speech. And the potential consequences are even more dire than the old warhorse would have imagined back in ’46 when Russia didn’t even have the bomb.
I believe neither Macron, Starmer, nor Trudeau would disagree with the idea of transplanting Churchill’s words to today. Indeed, Macron has said as much. U.S. President Trump would, of course, disagree — and there’s the rub. Because without the U.S., the Western democracies are self-evidently not standing together.
By the way, if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it, the ABC would probably be critical of his words. Or is the ABC okay with criticising Russia, just not Trump? And further, by the way, don’t you love Malcolm Turnbull’s courage when he has nothing personally to lose. When he had something to lose his “courage”.
But I digress. Here is another one for our quiz. Who said this?
Possibly in some quarters, an inclination is felt to forget about these colossal sacrifices of the Russian people which secured the liberation of Europe from the Hitlerite yoke. But Russia cannot forget about them. And so what can be surprising about the fact that Russia, anxious for its future safety, is trying to see to it that governments loyal in their attitude to Russia should exist in these countries? How can anyone, who has not taken leave of their senses, describe these peaceful aspirations of Russia as expansionist tendencies on the part of our state?
I am guessing you may be onto me this time. Yes, correct, it is not Russian President Vladimir Putin. Those were the words of one “Uncle Joe” Stalin (a leader just as trustworthy as Putin), on 13 March 1946, in answer to Churchill’s speech above. But most would agree they might as well be Putin’s words. That is what he thinks and has made clear often enough. Trump would, of course, disagree — and there’s the rub.
When Churchill made his speech, he made sure U.S. President Truman was sitting beside him to give tacit approval to what he was saying. The Cold War may not have been a fun time in world diplomacy, but if the U.S. and the UK had been split, we may well have had a very hot war instead.
Whatever else can be said about the adventures and misadventures of the U.S., UK and NATO up to the fall of the Soviet Union, they were strong democracies that all genuinely wished to preserve democracy. But there is nothing magical about democracy as a political vehicle. By that, I mean it doesn’t have magical powers. It must be worked at and cherished.
Above all, it must be practised in good faith. It is not enough to give everyone the vote and say they can exercise it in secret if the key elements of democracy are crumbling away.
But it hasn’t been practised in good faith. Aye, and there indeed is the rub
Okay, final quiz question. Which dictator said this to a room full of America’s political and economic leaders?
Why are you guys so anti-dictators? Imagine if America were a dictatorship.
You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes and bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for healthcare and education. Your media would appear free but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family.
You could wiretap phones. You could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group and no one would complain.
You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests.
The answer is that, as in Shakespeare, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth always comes from the fool. For those who haven’t been fortunate enough to see the film The Dictator, the above is a transcription of Sacha Baron Cohen’s wonderful “comic” monologue.
The conceit is obvious. The so-called democracies are really just dictatorships anyway, in particular the Anglo-Saxon democracies, with their so-called two-party systems where both parties practice exactly the same economics and exactly the same politics, and fix the roulette table so no one can even get their chips on the board, let alone beat the house.
The two parties are there to serve their common oligarchic friends. Trump just takes that to extremes and doesn’t try to hide it.
And before you get too complacent and have a big old chuckle at Trump and the poms, have a close look at Baron Cohen’s “advantages” of dictatorship and tell me they aren’t all practised in good old Oz. If you disagree with that, you are a victim of the final sentence of the comedian’s monologue above. You need to read things other than the mainstream media and all the X posts that parrot what the MSM has to say.
What all this comes down to is that once upon a time, there was a madman in Russia. The democracies stood up to him and the world survived. Now, there is another madman in Russia and the democracies don’t exist. Not like they used to, not really at all.
Here in our country, which is relevant to us because we live here and because it is the only country we can do anything about, no one is doing anything at all. All the squabbling over five centimetres when there are five kilometres of problems to deal with must end.
Albanese: “We’ll spend $1 billion on defence.”
Dutton: “Then we’ll spend $1.1 billion.”
Albanese: “Shut up, boofhead!”
Dutton: “You shut up, um, um...”
So what can you do about all this? Plenty!
An election is coming. Can you really vote for the least worst option one more time and not implode? Put a rocket up the bastards. Show them that, contrary to their settled beliefs, democracy is in your hands.
Vote for someone other than the major parties. Pick the candidate whose policies are closest to your personal ideals. How’s that for a radical idea? In the end, it doesn’t really matter who you vote for. Just someone other than the oligarchs’ parties. Get together with your friends, pick someone else and vote for them. You’ll be amazed at how good it makes you feel.
And learn how preferential voting works. Or just trust me when I tell you that you can vote for someone else and put your “least worst option” major party candidate second, and you are not wasting your vote. The one you vote for first may actually win. So there’s the rocket up the majors. There’s a seat they have lost. If everyone does it, they will lose many and they will lose government.
And if your preferred candidate doesn’t win, your vote moves on to the brain-dead major party candidate anyway. It’s a great system that worries the major parties no end. That’s why they go to such trouble to confuse you about something that is really quite simple.
Let’s not worry about making Australia great again. Let’s just make it democratic again. Meet in secret underground. Plan the attack with your friends. Then go to the voting booth and in secret, do your best.
You want to know about the quiet achiever. That will be you!
Victor Kline is a writer and a barrister whose practice focuses on pro bono work for refugees and asylum seekers. You can follow Victor on Twitter/X @victorklineTNL.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
