Australia’s cultural elites are really making a mockery of working class pride when they have a meltdown reaction to Donald Trump.The electoral victory.
Left-wing author Peter FitzSimons struggled for civility when an X follower politely criticized him for adopting the mindset that Trump supporters were objects of contempt.
“I have no respect for Trump,” he responded when the election results came in.
FitzSimons, a resident of Mosman on Sydney’s plush north shore, would probably struggle to understand how working-class Americans voted Republican because they are more concerned about high inflation and job security than identity politics over race and gender. .
Vice President Kamala Harris not only lost the industrial states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania after making abortion and “defending democracy” key issues of her campaign.
He also handed Democrats their worst electoral college vote in a presidential election since 1988, when Trump’s Republicans swept states with the highest proportion of blue-collar workers.
But this time she also became the first Democrat in two decades to lose the popular vote after preferring to campaign on stage with the likes of Bon Jovi, Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez.
Instead, Trump put on a McDonald’s uniform, picked up fries, and also sat on a garbage truck in a fluoro orange vest, drawing ridicule from left-wing media.
Australian elites are really making a mockery of working class pride when they have a meltdown reaction to Donald Trump’s election victory.
The Republican president-elect at least showed an affinity for low-paid workers or those who perform hard physical labor.
This is something certain celebrity pontificators and B-list snobs, including those who wear a red scarf as a fashion statement, would have trouble understanding as center-left political parties, from the American Democrats to the Australian Labor Party, lose the support of those without university. degree.
FitzSimons even dismissively suggested that Australian Trump supporters, in their red Make America Great Again hats, were mentally ill.
“The saddest thing, to me, is that Australian MAGA supporters claim to be ‘patriots’, completely oblivious to the fact that they are nothing more than a ramshackle branch of American lunatics,” he posted on X a month before the election.
‘As unpatriotic and un-Australian as it gets!’
How ironic that FitzSimons describes Trump supporters as unpatriotic and “crazy” for wanting to protect local jobs!
Trump’s plan to impose 10 to 20 percent tariffs on imports is, in fact, exactly the kind of policy Australia had when it still had a car industry.
From 2000 to 2005, Australia applied 15 percent tariffs on imported cars.
In 2002, Holden – and not Toyota – was still the best-selling brand in Australia, with the Adelaide-built Commodore the number one selling car.
Tariffs on imports fell to 10 per cent in 2005, and under Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd they were halved again, to just five per cent in 2010.
Peter FitzSimons (pictured with wife Lisa Wilkinson) struggled to be civil when an X user criticized him for adopting the mentality that Trump supporters were objects of contempt.
The Republican president-elect at least showed an affinity for low-paid workers or those who perform hard physical labor.
By 2011, the Australian-made Holden Commodore was no longer the best-selling car in Australia, with the fully imported Mazda3 taking that crown.
Never before has a fully imported car been the best-selling car in Australia; The country’s most popular car was previously assembled or manufactured entirely locally.
Just six years later, Australia produced its last car, and Holden, Ford and Toyota closed their local manufacturing operations.
This occurred during Trump’s first year in office in 2017.
The end of Holden was a blow to Australia’s national pride, ending 100 years of the former Adelaide saddlery company that assembled American General Motors cars and launched the first Holden in 1948.
The brand, synonymous with Kingswood and Commodore, was once the pride of Australia, but the lion-badged car brand died in 2021.
The Ford Falcon nameplate had lasted 56 years, as a proudly Australian-made car, but the moniker of the world’s longest-surviving model is now nothing more than a historical footnote.
The end of Holden was a blow to Australia’s national pride, ending 100 years of the former Adelaide saddlery company that assembled General Motors cars and launched the first Holden in 1948.
Trump may be ridiculed by elites for wanting to impose high tariffs, including 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods.
But from 1978 to 1988, Australia effectively had tariffs of 57.5 percent on all imported cars.
Elites also like to mock Trump for wanting to tear up free trade agreements.
That’s all well and good if both sides operate in good faith, but in Thailand’s case, Australia failed after signing such an agreement in 2005.
In a bid to protect its own car manufacturing industry, Thailand imposed excise taxes on larger cars, making it impossible for Ford Australia to export the Territory SUV to that market.
Ford was also making large right-hand drive cars and having bumps in the road, despite a free trade deal, meant it had no viable export program to survive beyond 2016 as a local manufacturer.
It is now too late for Australia to revive its car industry.
Trump – the author of The Art of the Deal – at least understands how it is the working class that is harmed by bad deals.
That’s something those rich, leftist elites may want to consider, but it’s probably out of their reach.
