Miranda Devine, one of Murdoch’s senior Australian Make America Great Again (MAGA) cheerleader columnists, is fuming about how Donald Trump’s “freedom rally” outside the White House ended up as a "tragedy for the Republican Party, for conservatives and populist nationalists, and for Donald Trump and his legacy”.
“The footage of yesterday’s Capitol break-in will be played on eternal loop by Trump-hating media as evidence that the populist nationalist movement which propelled Trump to power was a dangerous aberration that must never be allowed to rise again,” she wrote in her January 6 column in the New York Post.
“They now have a free pass to persecute their ideological enemies while enacting their pet cultural Marxist projects and changing this country irrevocably for the worst.”
Other Trump supporters in Australia went further blaming “Marxists” for “infiltrating” the MAGA movement, and even staging the storming of the US Congress.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly tweeted that the “small group” that entered the US parliament was hardly a threat to anyone and that the real threat were “neo-fascists and Marxists”.
“Neo-fascists and Marxists engaged in a highly co-ordinated ‘false flag operation, by infiltrating the protest and invading the Parliament so the world’s media falsely blame and discredit,” he tweeted, repeating the latest conspiracy theory being peddled by the far-right in the US.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison brushed off questions about Kelly’s extreme views, on grounds of freedom of speech. Shortly after, however, Kelly’s bizarre tweets disappeared from his feed.
Victorian Liberal MP Bernie Finn joined the fray saying that Trump had been “improperly” removed from office and that “he set a wonderful example to every other national leader by putting America first”.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly implied that Antifa protesters had organised the Capitol riots, and referenced a discredited Washington Times post which quoted from an unnamed “retired military officer”. Kelly, who uses Facebook to voice his Trumpite questionable cures for COVID-19, climate denial and more, has a growing following.
Nationals’ leader Michael McCormack, as acting PM, likened the Capitol Hill riot to Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd, describing them as “race riots”.
It is hardly news that there is support for MAGA in Australia.
Since the beginning of Trump’s presidency, there has been relentless bipartisan support for strengthening US-Australia “defence” ties, new rich nation-exclusive trade deals, and now a new anti-China campaign.
From Morrison’s thumbs-up selfie with Trump, to Trump awarding him the Legion of Merit military medal on December 22, their relationship was one long celebration of “loyal and devoted friendship” borne of similar colonial settler state racist ideology.
Now, after an embarrassingly delayed response to the Capitol Hill fiasco, Morrison has moved on to the new script, including how “distressing” the MAGA movement’s storming of Capitol Hill was and how important it was to have a “peaceful transfer of government to the newly elected administration in the great American democratic tradition”.
The opposition Labor Party has sought to make political capital from this by energetically pushing around a meme with the Trump-Morrison thumbs-up selfies with the caption: “It’s the company you keep”.
But Labor’s hypocrisy is clear to see in Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s video response tweeted on January 7.
Albanese described the storming of Capitol Hill by Trump supporters as a “tragedy for the great democracy that is the United States of America”.
While he condemned Trump’s incitement of his supporters and his initial refusal to accept that he had lost the election, Albanese went on to hail the US as “our most important ally” and said its “strong institutions” needed to be defended.
Trump’s right-wing populist presidency has exposed the ugly, racist, imperialist and anti-social nature of billionaire-class rule in the US. But President-elect Joe Biden’s administration shows every intention of continuing to rule for that class.
The grossly contrasting treatment by the US police of the largely peaceful mass mobilisations of the Black Lives Matter movement to their kid-glove handling of the MAGA mob on Capitol Hill also exposed the racist and partisan nature of the US state apparatus.
Therefore, there is little to cheer in Albanese’s response to the Trumpites’ attempt to stop the vote count of the Electoral Colleges, which was based firmly on the support of the US establishment.
The world has seen the bankruptcy of the US capitalist state and now Australia’s “me too” opposition leader is volunteering to support Biden’s clean-up team.
Australia’s major parties are both deeply committed to serving US imperial interests — which include endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, possibly starting one with China, extending the North-South wealth divide and doing little to stop the pending climate change catastrophe. In doing so, they support the interests of the billionaire class in the junior imperialist state that is Australia.
Australia needs a new political direction and this requires a sharp break from this bi-partisan orthodoxy. By all means condemn Trump and Trumpism, but don’t sweep the truth about the US imperialist state under the carpet. The incipient Trumpite movement in this country does not need any encouragement.
The world has seen the bankruptcy of the US capitalist state and now Australia’s “me too” opposition leader is volunteering to support Biden’s clean-up team.
Australia’s major parties are both deeply committed to serving US imperial interests — which include endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, possibly starting one with China, extending the North-South wealth divide and not doing enough to stop the pending climate change catastrophe. In doing so, they support the interests of the billionaire class in the junior imperialist state that is Australia.
Australia needs a new political direction and this requires a sharp break from this bipartisan orthodoxy. By all means condemn Trump and Trumpism, but don’t sweep the truth about the US imperialist state under the carpet.
[This article was updated on January 15.]