G’day mates in the USA,

With #Election2020 there will be a lot of,

“If _______ wins I’m moving to Australia.”

A few things to keep in mind beyond roos, beaches, Hemsworths, @Patty_Mills @RebelWilson @russellcrowe @Wil_Anderson & prawns (not shrimp) on the barbie...

A study by former Stanford professor now Sydney University's US Studies Centre chief executive @SimonJackman (& team) found,

Aussie conservative voters are ideologically closer to Hillary Clinton voters than Trump voters.

(Yep. Aussie *conservatives*)

American’s are often confused by Australia’s centre right party being a coalition of the Nationals and the Liberals. But as Liberal party founder PM Robert Menzies put it,

“We took the name 'Liberal' because we were determined to be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary but believing in the individual, his right and his enterprise, and rejecting the socialist panacea”

the history of Aussie conservatives.

So the study found,

78% of Aussie *conservative voters* support increased “funding for hospital visits for emergencies and operations to lower the costs for patients", vs 74% of Hillary Clinton voters (26% Trump voters)

82% of Clinton voters
and 84% of *all* Aussie voters
(yes, conservatives included) thought minimum wage should be high enough so that no family with a full-time worker falls below the official poverty line (only 28% of Trump voters surveyed agreed)

61% of both *all* Aussies
and Clinton voters
agreed the government should provide a decent standard living for the unemployed

(while only 17% of Trump voters agreed)

56% of Hillary Clinton voters agreed that the government should provide a *free* university education for anyone who wants to attend. Unsurprisingly only 14% of Trump votes agreed yet 39% of conservative Aussie voters agreed.

Australians across the board are more likely to agree with the science regarding human caused climate change.

Tellingly Aussies are less likely than Hillary Clinton voters to support reducing fossil fuels.

**cough mining cough**

And this is normally the part where Aussies gloat, thankful we aren’t like those Sepos cos we

we abolished the death penalty abolished in 1973

Gun laws (brought in by the right wing majority party) are stricter than what Obama was proposing

etc etc etc

...**BUT**

While Trump voters might loathe the ‘liberal’ utopian egalitarian experiment that is Australia where a “fair go” is a more important value than individual freedom, they would love this aspect:

It was designed as a utopian egalitarian experiment for ‘white’ people only.

The sunburnt Janus-faced beast that is Australia is simultaneously an egalitarian progressive utopian experiment and a genocidal colonial white supremacist fantasy.

“White Australia Policy” continues as racism towards First Nations & brutal immigration policy towards refugees.

The report highlights this history,

European Aussies were twice(!) as likely to hold racist prejudices against Aboriginal Aussies than European Americans towards African Americans.

So there is lots that America white supremacists might shamefully like about Oz after all.

To quote the report directly,

“Australians of European and Australian ancestry — seem more likely to report overtly prejudicial beliefs than White Americans.”

https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/public-opinion-in-the-united-states-and-australia-compared#the-role-of-the-state

So instead of prideful glee that Aussies are so much more progressive than our Yankee mates, we might need our own ‘come to Jesus moment’ and confess our nation runs on a more liberal white supremacist hardware that desperately needs throwing out rather than “diversifying”.

Maybe then we can confess that it is undealt with white supremacy that meant Trump told Turnbull that Australia’s refugee policy was an inspiration for his response to people needing safety. And why Farhard was locked up on #Manus for 7 years. https://twitter.com/farrahmati/status/1314431456056279041?s=21 https://twitter.com/farrahmati/status/1314431456056279041

We need not look further than the Australian government’s most recent budget as it concerns those seeking safety to see the ongoing work of a Australian white supremacist imaginary: https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/10/08/budget-2020-asylum-seekers-migrants/

So Americans and Aussies both can unite in dismantling white supremacy. This racism animates not just far-right militias but middle-class amiable attitudes and policies that animate life as usual in our nations to the cost of most of our neighbours, who we need to love.

So Aussies, instead of making fun of our US mates as they live through the trauma of their democracy is at risk, can we instead discuss how our society produced a white supremacist terrorist who killed 51 people in their place of worship last year in New Zealand?