These independent columnists at The Oz are for the most part a pretty shallow lot when it comes to discussing American politics. There are not one but two anti-Trump articles today. I read all such articles religiously wherever they show up, since I am in an ongoing pursuit of the contra case which has been utterly invisible up until now. There is, of course, no case for Biden, But after four years of his presidency, there must be an anti-Trump case somewhere. But if there is, you won’t find it in The Australian.
This is Peter Van Onselen’s take, who, he writes, “seriously toyed with renouncing his [American] citizenship four years ago when Trump won”. I’ll bet. Just like all the folks who threatened to move to Canada. From what he has written today, he is obviously unable to have learned anything since 2016. Here’s what he has to say four years later: US election 2020: For decency’s sake, Trump must not be returned. Why then is that?
“The damage four more years of Trump would do to American society, its standing in the world, the Republican Party and conservatism as an ideology isn’t worth thinking about…. His mocking of people’s looks, gender, sexual orientation and those with a disability makes him unfit to run a corner shop much less a country…. The cause of conservatives will continue to drift further from what conservatism is supposed to represent: a defence of institutions and respect for process and good governance.
“[There is] his ongoing (near endless) personal abuse of anyone who challenges him. His profound mishandling of the COVID crisis. Despite the way Trump threatens to tear down institutions and denigrate the fourth estate at every opportunity. All the while bringing American democracy into disrepute….
“[There is also] Trump’s flippant attitude towards the dangers COVID-19….
“Trump has never been about anything other than his own aggrandisement. But the way so-called conservative commentators and politicians have abided Trump, even spruiked for him, is much harder to forgive. Doing so exposed how shallow their collective beliefs and ideological understanding really is.
There it is. That’s the case. If anyone can find anything else, they are welcome to add it in. Especially absurd is his telling conservatives what to believe as if he has even an inkling of a notion what conservatism is. How do people like that get paid real money to write such trash?
There is then the equally dense Troy Bramston in his US election 2020: Voters are tired of Trump’s catastrophic presidency. Same challenge, to find anything of substance from one end of the column to the other. Not that there is much effort made to make such case. The entire article is about polling and how Trump is almost certain to lose which he may well do, in large part because of the full court press all across the media. These are, in full, his reasons why he ought to lose.
Trump has been a catastrophic president….
The most important election issue is COVID-19. Trump’s handling of the pandemic has been disastrous.
Both are an embarrassment to The Australian and to journalism. The Murdoch Press is gung ho in opposing Trump’s re-election. Their columnists have apparently followed the boss’s orders in trying to make the invisible case for voting for Joe Biden instead. What their writings show beyond anything else is that no such case exists because if it did, someone would be able to make it.
Law of Markets 