Elections always bring about diverse reactions. One side is typically overjoyed at victory, while the other is disappointed in defeat. In a two-sided contest, such disparate reactions are the order of the day. In a healthy system, transitions of power are peaceful.
Looking at recent history, however, this trend is fading. Consider 2016 and the famous Women’s March. Consider the so-called ‘resistance Liberals’ who objected to Trump’s ‘tone’ and lack of ‘civility’. In addition, consider the 2020 reaction with the great lie that is the ‘stolen election’.
To prove that Australia is not immune from this frankly hysterical reaction to electoral defeat, I want to look at the media’s reaction to the ALP’s recent victory. The reaction can be described as nothing short of a tantrum. There is a clear and unsubtle subtext of ‘Listen, you peasants, no one said you could vote Labor’.
The Usual Suspects, Part One: Sky News
In a response that shocked precisely no one, Sky so-called News responded to a democratic loss with a few gems. Keep in mind, these are the ‘hard truth’ people who ‘tell it like it is’. Not those overly emotional leftie cucks who yell about their feelings and cry when things do not go their way. After Dark host Paul Murray came out with this absolute pearler in response to the result:
Ok, in order. Resistance against what? The will of the majority of the voters, who rejected your increasingly hard-right party and their cruel politics? You never get to talk about democracy again, you flaming hypocrite. Oh, you love sacred democracy, as long as it generates the correct result. Also, the mad left? Really, the mad left. So anyone who dares to vote for anyone other than the LNP is a ‘mad leftie’ from whom the country must be taken back. Seems legitimate. Finally, that phrase at the bottom of the screen does not mean what you think it means. You think it means resistance to the mad left. But at face value, that sentence reads that a resistance of the mad left begins now. To paraphrase George Carlin, learn the language we have all agreed upon, you clown.
The Usual Suspects, Part Two: The ABC
There are many voices from the right on the ‘left-leaning’ ABC, a statement the election coverage utterly blew out of the water. One of the most prominent is renowned right-wing hack Andrew Probyn, who had this to say concerning Anthony Albanese:
Does the contempt for voters and the elitism not simply ooze off that statement? In other words, ‘Albo appeals mostly to stupid peasants who do not know their place’. Remember too that these clowns hate elitists, otherwise known as people who can read. But you live in a democracy, remember. You can vote any way you like as long as ‘the right people’ get into power. But sacred democracy is the most important thing, remember. Garbage. Total, utter and complete garbage. As I have long suspected, for Tories, the word ‘democracy’ is a mere buzzword for ‘the status quo which benefits us and our corporate masters’. Get that garbage outta here!
The Usual Suspects, Part Three: Lord (Lady?) Downer
I wanted to end the institutional tantrum that is the reaction to a Labor Party election victory by looking at a statement from former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. He said:
I don’t always think the voters are right and in Kooyong I think they were profoundly wrong in voting out Josh Frydenberg. I think it is a huge national mistake.
Once again we see the contempt for the peasants, a group best understood as anyone who dares to not vote for the LNP. Nothing brings voters onside quite like saying they are profoundly wrong. But the most amusing part is the idea that the ousting of Josh Frydenberg, a single member in one electorate, was a ‘national mistake’. It was an entirely local decision. So not only was it not national, it was not a ‘mistake’ either. This is not merely because I wanted to see the back of old Joshy, but a result in an election cannot, by definition, be a mistake. It was the will of the voters. To borrow from Paul Keating, how you going over there Curly? You old darling? Clod.
Conclusion: An Institutional Tantrum
The Labor Party won the 2022 election by some considerable margin. Based on the reactions of various parts of the media, this was not planned. Whether it is Sky, the ABC or any other media figure in the mainstream, the reaction to this democratic election going a certain way may be accurately characterised as a tantrum. Both the Liberal Party and their media allies are nothing but brats in suits. Power is their toy and they should never have to share it. Mummy and Daddy (the electorate in this analogy) made them share it here, and so they are stamping their feet and screaming and crying like the pampered brats they are.
This response, as pathetic as it is, does provide useful insight into the institutional bias in this country. A party with repugnant ideas, which should have gone by the wayside years ago, is propped up by the media, now including the National Broadcaster. For the Labor Party to win government, it has to combat the media as well as the Liberal Party. The fact that the party which represents the workers has been in power roughly 30% of the time in the last seventy years says much about the institutional bias in favour of the LNP.
But back to the plot. The media has shown itself utterly incapable of doing its job. Indeed, the incompetence of the Fourth Estate has given rise to what Giordano of The Juice Media called The Fifth Estate. People like us here at The AIMN, Independent Australia, Alan Austin, Friendlyjordies, The Echidna and others. Just ordinary citizens doing actual critical reporting of government and media. We may never replace the Fourth Estate, but we are far closer to the people than those elitists will ever be. Soldier on, my friends.
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