It’s Margo Kingston, in the Guardian Australia on Pauline Hanson takes centre stage again but this time we should listen not lampoon cited by Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit under the non-ironic heading, AMERICAN JOURNALISTS COVERING THE TRUMP PHENOMENON COULD LEARN A LOT FROM THIS PIECE. This is his chosen quote:

“Her supporters were by and large nice people with little money who were largely uninterested in politics. They were suffering badly from the effects of competition policy, which had seen basic services and jobs stripped out of their towns. They loved Hanson’s grit and plain speaking. Most of all, they loved that she listened. . . . When I tried to converse with supporters about politics I misinterpreted everything they said, and likewise. I thought they were racists and they thought I was a racist. Communication was impossible without getting to know each other first. . . . Western democracies are splitting up into warring tribes. I think Hanson’s return to our parliament is a chance to bring ours together a little bit. If we try.”

And this from the comments at Instapundit:

:”…One Nation’s policy. Its vote collapsed..” Actually, that is wrong. What happened was the main parties, LIB, Labour, DEMs , Greens, NATs all “preference’d” her at the bottom, as that is what you used to be able to do Down Under. The final vote is your actual vote plus preferences from others…..The smart Rich Guy who did a hostile takeover of the LIB/NAT Coalition party decided that he would change the system to get rid of the “kooks” from the Senate. He did that with the support of the Greens (never a good sign). What he did not understand was that the parties like One Nation get pretty solid *primary* voter support. Once people could pick their own preferences, the independents like Hanson and others leaped above the Family First and Palmer party types… They are now here to stay, for at least the next 3-6 years…

More than likely, the smart rich guy is going to need the support of Bob Katter (Google his videos!) and Hanson to get anything done…Good Times!

Whatever kind of times they are, they are certainly a changing.

If you don’t think the fix is in, you should read the editorial today in The Age. It begins:

Voting requires a leap of faith, a trust in candidates and parties to deliver on policies and potential. And when Australians go to the ballot boxes on Saturday, there is an added layer of faith required in voting for the Coalition – that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will stamp his authority as a progressive leader on a party whose hardline conservatives have somewhat shackled him since he replaced their champion, Tony Abbott.

But, on balance, that is the leap The Age believes voters should make. Although there is disappointment about Mr Turnbull’s performance, and notwithstanding the unexpectedly robust recovery Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has staged, there is not a sufficient case to take the rare and disruptive step of removing a federal government after only one term.

And just in case you missed it in The Age, here is the concluding para in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Given the choice between a Coalition led by the socially progressive economic reformer Mr Turnbull, and a Shorten-led Labor party backed by reform-resistant unions, we support the election of a Turnbull government.

What else is there to to know? Vote accordingly.

FURTHER THOUGHTS: A stray comment picked up by Tim Blair.

Another senior Right MP said there were “swings to Labor everywhere’’ and claimed “Albo’s people are doing their best to reduce the number of seats Bill can win”.

There are some who normally vote Liberal who are trying to lose to Labor while there are those who are normally Labor trying to lose to the Libs. Daniel Andrews taking on the Volunteer Firefighters in Victoria makes no sense if you are trying to preserve votes for the ALP but makes incredible sense if your aim is to have Albanese-Plibersek ready for 2019. And weirdly, with all the help the Libs are getting from Labor, Malcolm is still only 50.5 to 49.5 according to The Oz today. Even with all the left media and the left of the ALP doing all they can, Malcolm is still only just marginally ahead of 50-50.

I never watch television with the only exception I used to make was the Bolt Report on Sunday mornings. But then Bolt switched to Sky on weekdays @ 7:00 pm which meant I would get home too late, and I don’t anyway like to find myself shifting my timetable to fit into what’s on when. And although I can video, other than an occasional ball game of some sort, the main reason I have videoed things in the past is so that I could happily miss them and not worry about it when the program was finally deleted unwatched a month later.

But here it is. I now do watch Bolt most days. I find I get home that half hour sooner so that I can watch the program in real time. So let me note this from Bolt:

The audience for this difficult 7pm to 8pm time slot on pay TV (note: not taxpayer-subsidised free-to-air) was once very tiny. When I took over less than two months ago, it rose to the 20,000 Barry claims.

But since then we’ve grown, with your very welcome support. On at least two days last week, we topped 50,000 viewers. The word is getting out and, clearly, some people appreciate the alternative enough to pay to watch it. If Barry cares to test his own pulling power, I am sure Sky News will offer him a slot, too.

Well, part of that rise is the two of us, and we usually make it through to the end. If you can watch, that is, if you have cable, you should when you can. It’s the only current affairs on TV worth the effort, not that I watch any other so perhaps I am being unfair, though I doubt it.