Rita Panahi: 2019’s biggest surprise winners and losers
It’s been a year of surprise election results, furious embarrassment for the Left and Victoria Police. But whether it was Trump or a stellar redemption story — 2019 has had plenty of winners, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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With the end of the year looming, let’s take a look at some of 2019’s biggest winners and losers.
WINNERS
ScoMo’s Quiet Australians
The mainstream who don’t take to the streets to protest, don’t superglue themselves to roads or spend their days harassing businesses and politicians online. They’re too busy working, paying taxes and going to the ballot box to make fools of political pundits. It’s clear that many of those pundits still don’t know who the Quiet Australians are, just as they were clueless about the Coalition base and why the centre-right has won seven of the past nine federal elections.
The Joker
It’s the film that triggered more hysterical media commentary than any other. It was said to glorify toxic white masculinity and would lead to acts of violence and perhaps even mass shootings. Even before the film was released there were predictions that it would radicalise young men and serve as an “incel training manual”. The Joker is the first R-rated feature to pass US$1 billion, pretty impressive for a film made for $US62.5 million ($90 million).
Steve Smith and Dave Warner
What a difference a year makes. In March 2018 I was a rare voice cautioning against the absurd vitriol being directed at the pair for ball tampering. A year later just about all is forgiven. Australians love stories of redemption and nothing warms us like two blokes falling from grace and coming back so spectacularly. Smith’s Ashes triumph and Warner’s record breaking triple century are among the year’s sporting highlights.
Israel Folau
The rugby star and devout Christian had a rollercoaster year. One of the Wallaby’s best players was sacked for sharing his religious beliefs on his Instagram page but he had the last laugh with a multimillion-dollar settlement and grovelling apology from Rugby Australia. On Thursday it was revealed a New York rugby league franchise is interested in signing Folau.
The Queen
With apologies to Elton John, the Queen has the grace to hold herself while those around her crawl. Despite her 93 years, she remains dedicated to public service and maintains a schedule that would exhaust a much younger woman. While some of her children and grandchildren carry on like fools (see losers list), the Queen quietly ensures the monarchy is admired by the masses.
Donald Trump
Thanks largely to the Democrats’ boundless idiocy, Trump looks set to be re-elected in 2020. By impeaching him, primarily for winning the 2016 election, the Democrats have not only energised the Republican base but fatally wounded their frontrunner, Joe Biden. And the whole sordid sham will be defeated in the Senate anyway. It’s the biggest own goal in three years of own goals. Meanwhile, unemployment is at a 50-year low, Black and Hispanic unemployment is at an all-time low, advantageous trade deals are being negotiated and there is real wages growth. It’s not hard to see why the USA TODAY/Suffolk University national poll published this week had Trump leading every Democrat presidential candidate.
LOSERS
Democrats-Labour-Labor
From the US to the UK to Australia, the mainstream Left’s lurch to the far Left has seen them alienate their traditional base. Bill Shorten’s Labor received a disastrous 33 per cent of the primary vote while Labour in the UK under terrorist sympathising socialist simpleton Jeremy Corbyn plummeted to 203 seats against the Boris Johnson led-Conservatives on 365. After three years of obstruction by the “ruling elite”, the biggest vote in British history will be honoured with Johnson delivering Brexit. The conservative revolution extends far and wide, from Brazil to India to Greece.
Media echo chamber
Among the hardest hit by this year’s election results were the hard Left members of the media who have fooled themselves into thinking that Twitter is representative of the wider population. The likes of Barrie Cassidy, Jane Caro and Pirate Pete FitzSimons have humiliated themselves with predictions and commentary that have proven to be laughably wrong.
Corporate virtue signallers
Westpac has been vocal on just about every Leftist cause from climate change to diversity drives to gay marriage; but all the while it was committing millions of breaches that facilitated money laundering, child exploitation and more. Internationally, Gillette’s male feminist campaign was so putrid that the company suffered not only long-term reputational damage but saw millions wiped off the company’s bottom line.
V ictoria Police
The damning High Court findings saw the upper echelons of Victoria Police condemned for corrupting the prosecution of offenders and debasing the criminal justice system. “Victoria Police were guilty of reprehensible conduct in knowingly encouraging EF (Lawyer X) to do as she did and were involved in sanctioning atrocious breaches of the sworn duty of every police officer,” the High Court said. But police command’s woes aren’t restricted to the Lawyer X scandal; there are also accusations of political bias, deep seated cultural problems and the force’s unhealthy obsession with spin.
Royal family
While the Queen is a shining light, the lesser members of the family have provided tawdry scandals, apocalyptic global warming predictions and gross hypocrisy. Prince Andrew’s woes are one thing but it’s Prince Charles we need to worry about, given the kooky royal will one day be king. And 2019 saw Prince Harry and Meghan go from favourites to fools.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist.