If you’re sick of hearing and reading about Trump, I have some terrible news: this probably is not going to stop for the next 4 to 8 years. Sorry.
People will be picking apart the decisions he’s going to make as President and the decisions he has made as President until he does his final fart in the Oval Office before exiting the White House. There is no escape.
Thanks to their Monday night time slot, ‘Q&A‘ had to wait an entire week to sink their teeth into the US election, but wait they did, and they addressed Trump’s rise and its possible effects on Australia the only way they know how: with some mid-level Australian politicians and some disarmingly charming American guests.
The night mainly focused on trying to unpack the causes behind Trump’s win, which seemed to centre around people feeling disenfranchised from establishment politics and media:
.@Barnaby_Joyce thinks it’s “I’m sick of being told what to think” @Dr_JenHunt says it’s not a mandate #QandA https://t.co/PPGbq4P4zu
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 14, 2016
Given that Australia’s own One Nation rally themselves around the idea that the leftist media control everything (which is way, way less true in Australia than it is in the US) and that they’re being shamed just for having differences of opinion (note: being racist is not just a difference of opinion), it’s not so crazy to wonder if the same thing could happen here.
One audience member posed the most terrifying hypothetical ever by asking if we could see a Prime Minister Pauline Hanson in our time, and was roundly met with a solid “No.” from both sides of the political fence.
Both Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and Labor MP Kate Ellis agreed (for the first and last time in the evening) that that nightmare eventuality wasn’t going to become a reality for Australia any time soon, with Joyce saying “I respect the half a million people who voted for One Nation (yuck), but it’s a lot harder running the show than talking about the show.”
Kate Ellis emphasised that Australia is not America:
“We didn’t go through the deep recession that they went through. We also know, compulsory voting means- if they had compulsory voting I suspect we would have seen a very different result in the US. I don’t think we should all start getting the ‘Pauline for PM’ merchandise.”
I mean, that’s what they said about Trump, so, who knows. Have a watch:
Should we expect Pauline Hanson as our possible future prime minister? @KateEllisMP & @Barnaby_Joyce say no #QandA https://t.co/MmR8xoySKt
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 14, 2016
Source and photo: ABC.
