Rita Panahi: Victorian politics is a long way from the grandeur of the US presidential election

Victorians are not “woke and stupid”, they’ve been failed by Labor leaders inept at governing and hopeless, Liberal bedwetters.

Victorians are not “woke and stupid” as I heard remarked this week.

We have just been failed by an abysmal class of politician in the past two decades.

Labor leaders proved to be adept at politics and inept at governing, while the Liberals have consistently been hopeless at both.

When Victorians were given a clear choice at the Voice referendum they opted for the conservative position of the Peter Dutton-led Coalition over those of Labor-Greens-Teals-and various small ‘L’ Liberal bedwetters.

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton. Picture: Linda Higginson

This is despite the ‘yes’ camp outspending their opponents by a considerable margin as well as enjoying the support of big corporates, academia, celebrities, sporting and government bodies including every single AFL team.

Victorian politics is a long way from the grandeur of the US presidential election but two of the top three issues in that election are evident here – the cost-of-living crisis and the culture wars. And on both issues we are being let down by Labor and the Labor-lite Coalition.

The top three reasons American voters gave for not backing the Democrats were inflation/the economy, the illegal immigration crisis and “Kamala Harris’ focus on cultural issues rather helping the middle class”, according to comprehensive research carried out by centre-Left polling firm Blueprint. This is something the Republicans recognised as soon as Harris was installed as the candidate.

One of the most effective ads the Donald Trump campaign ran highlighted Harris’ radical trans agenda such as providing taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for prison inmates and supporting men identifying as women competing in female sporting categories.

“Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” was a powerful election message.

Indeed, among the crucial swing voter cohort, who decide every election, culture issues ranked No. 1 ahead of inflation and the economy followed by illegal immigration.

US President Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

But don’t expect the Victorian Liberals to pick up on this trend. They still haven’t worked out that there has been a political realignment that sees the affluent lean Left and the working and middle classes increasingly lean right. They still think their future is in the inner city tram-track suburbs.

Instead of celebrating Trump’s incredible triumph and learning how he did it against all odds, at least two shadow ministers, James Newbury and David Southwick, had current or former staffers in the US donning Kamala Harris merchandise and attending the rallies of the most far Left Democrat presidential candidate we’ve seen. Victoria has some of the most radical trans policies in the world. Nobody voted for any of it.

No Victorian has had the chance to vote for or against male sexual predators identifying as female being imprisoned in Victoria’s biggest female jail, or male bodies competing in girls/women’s sports or confused kids being given puberty blockers and irreversible medical procedures to change genders.

Nobody voted for birth certificates that can be changed annually or pronoun-announcing they/them idiocy, but here we are with both Labor and the gutless, unprincipled Liberals backing the trans agenda against the wishes of what must be an overwhelming majority.

If we get the politicians we deserve then Victorians must be an exceptionally terrible lot.

We are not, of course. Nor are we “woke and stupid”.

We just need a real alternative with principles, clear policy positions and most importantly a backbone.