Peggy Grande: Australia election shocks the ‘experts’ – Once again they underestimate conservative message
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I’ve been in Australia this week and was fortunate to watch Scott Morrison be elected Prime Minister of Australia while here. President Trump promptly tweeted his congratulations -- but here is why we as Americans should care far beyond that kind nod of support for our close allies Down Under.
As we have seen recently all around the world, the progressives and the leftist media had determined ScoMo, as he is affectionately called by his supporters, to be dead on arrival. In fact, they had called this election “unwinnable”.
AUSTRALIA'S PRIME MINISTER SET TO FORM MAJORITY GOVERNMENT
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Bill Shorten, his opponent and leader of the Labor Party, had campaigned on a platform of adding a death tax, raising corporate tax rates, removing investment property tax deductions and increasing regulations to stop climate change, including a 49% renewable energy target by 2030 in Australia.
From an outsider perspective that doesn’t seem to be a winning platform, but it appeared to be a foregone conclusion here that he would win. And save Australia. And therefore save the planet.
Yet in my own informal polling of waiters and Uber drivers and café goers, it appeared the pollsters hadn’t been talking to the people I was.
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I found very few people excited about the Labor platform and even fewer who intended to vote for Labor. In fact, many said if Shorten won they may look for somewhere else to call home -- joking perhaps even Venezuela looked appealing.
So confident was the establishment in a Labor win that one individual in Australia waged a one million AUD bet on a Labor win, and one of the betting agencies made payouts for a labor victory even before the election results started coming in.
So how, once again, did the “experts” get it so wrong?
In Australia, where voting is compulsory, there’s a cynicism around politics in general. I find that Australians much prefer to talk about American politics and can tell me more about the U.S. political scene than their own.
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The sensational celebrity who is our president, Donald Trump, is like reality TV for Australians, though not surprising, the only news most people here get about him is the ridiculous and unflattering -- the tweets, the mocking from the left and the missteps all highlighted by his opposition.
In fact, the average Australian is shocked when I tell them about our current booming economy, our historic low unemployment and rising wages. It’s the first they’ve heard of that. No wonder they think our president is a joke and are shocked when I tell them he will overwhelmingly be re-elected in 2020.
We see increasingly a global trend toward these predetermined conclusions and have to wonder when will the self-analysis of the left begin?
They were overwhelmingly wrong about the election of Donald Trump because they couldn’t fathom him as the President of the United States. Without taking into account what the people of America wanted, they boldly predicted what they wanted. And were wrong. Entirely wrong.
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Likewise we saw with the re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, the predictions were an overwhelming loss. The pollsters were confident in their assessment and even the exit polling confirmed a landslide loss for the sitting Prime Minister.
Yet the people, the voters of Israel, had another outcome in mind and rather than buying into the slams and smears of their PM, they appreciated his strong and unapologetic pro-Israel stance and his strength in the face of dangerously growing anti-Semitism worldwide. He remains the Prime Minister, and yet the apologies from the experts who got it so wrong are non-existent.
Even in the UK we are seeing the meteoric rise of Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party. He’s been mocked and slandered and dismissed as an evil caricature who leads an angry mob of misfits and deplorables. Yet the current polling in Great Britain can’t ignore the fact that the Brexit party is polling higher than both the other top parties of the establishment combined.
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Again, the media clearly does not have its finger on the pulse of the people there. Nor does it want to acknowledge those who support British sovereignty and its right to self-determination. They can’t understand why the British people don’t want Brussels making their decisions and taking their money without their input.
No surprise the average working-class Brit wants out. Yet the political elite who all are aligned in their effort to increase their collective power don’t care about the opinions and desires and dreams of the people they supposedly represent.
The global elitists and their media have a combined accuracy rating that should be both embarrassing and cause for self-reflection, though we can confidently predict that neither outcome will prevail.
Those with the loudest megaphones will continue to spew their verdicts, regardless of truth, and discourage the rest of us by making us feel we are alone in our point of view.
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Regardless of what it is labeled -- “unprecedented”, “surprising”, “shocking”, “unexpected” -- the voting booth is still the last great equalizer; the opportunity to express what we the people feel; to contribute to our own self-determined future.
In voting booths all over this world voters are continuing to confirm they prefer independence over government intrusion. They prefer the opportunity to grow their own business rather than growing their dependence on their leaders. They believe the environment is important and should be protected, but not by breaking the backs of hard-working individuals.
The globalist movement to silence the voice of the people all over the world and speak on their behalf continues to be repudiated. And the global community of freedom seekers who want to live in harmony and health, in productivity and prosperity continues to unite. We coalesce around creating lives of our choosing, of seeking liberty from unnecessary oversight and pursuing happiness of our determination, not that which is mandated.
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These are not only American ideals but were on full display here in Australia this week as yet again the people -- not the pundits -- spoke and spoke loudly.
Congratulations to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and to the coalition which elected him. And thank you as well from a world that watches and applauds when common sense prevails and every time “the people” speak and win.
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