ttbn,

You don't get it, Australians reject Trumpism, racism and reactionary conservatism and all that nonsense you love. You and 2% of the population would like to wind back the clock to 1925, with its spats and straw hats, not possible, and certainly not wanted in modern Australia.

The cow cocky's should combine with One Nation dills, Noalition nongs, Crumpets, Christian crazies, Libby nut jobs etc etc, and form a new party, I like the name "Flugelhorn Of Failures" with Fat Clive and The Lovely Pauline as the Flugel Masters, very catchy, you could be a leading "Flugeler" along with Indy, mhaze and a couple of OLO regular reactionaries! Start a new Forum, ask GY to run it, call it OLF (On Line Flugelers) Rather sad me thinks

This thread appears to have become less of a debate and more of a psychological unravelling. The meltdown playing out here - and in other corners of social media - is both fascinating and disturbing.

The reaction this time feels distinctly different to what we saw three years ago. There’s something more coordinated and desperate about. For me, two things stand out:

1. The sheer intensity of the rage is wildly disproportionate to the cautious, steady approach Labor took in its first term. Whether people liked the outcomes or not, this wasn’t a government of wild swings, scandals, or upheaval.

2. The grievances being expressed are so strikingly similar that they feel scripted. It's the same thing across the board, almost word for word:

“The country is gone.”
“This was our last chance.”

These aren’t personal reflections anymore - they’re symptoms of a narrative that’s been carefully constructed in echo chambers, and passed around until it feels like the truth.

Now, post-election, we’re starting to see the next wave of messaging emerge. People aren’t just angry that Labor won - they’re reciting lists of everything the country has supposedly voted for:

- Three more years of Labor's lies.
- Three more years of economic sabotage.
- Three more years of national decline.

Yet, my requests for specifics either go unanswered or are responded to with accounts of what Labor had supposedly said or done that are either inflated, distorted, or simply untrue. But they feel real to those who’ve spent three years being told the sky is falling.

This isn’t just political frustration. It’s a sign of how powerfully echo chambers can reshape a person’s sense of reality - to the point where a steady government looks like tyranny, and a democratic result feels like betrayal.

The Labor Party were never gaping to lose this election. As I said straight after the election win in 2022, Australians simply don't kick out first term governments.

Its happened only once and that took a minor thing like the Great Depression to cause it. Even monumentally bad governments like Whitlam and Rudd/Gillard got a second go (although the later was forced into minority government).

So unless a first term government is a total disaster or is beset by a total disaster, they are given a second crack at it by the Australian people. Probably something to do with the 'fair-go' ethos.

That doesn't apply into the second term. The ALP's economic policies are woeful and will eventually come a cropper, especially if China unravels under pressure from Trump. The policy of screwing up and then generously 'fixing' if by throwing our grandkids money at the problem can only succeed for so long. They promised lower power prices in 2022 and only avoided being held accountable by throwing subsidies around like confetti. That can only work once.

Who knows, maybe the world economy may ride a Trump wave and Albo will take the credit. Or maybe our major exports will collapse and with it government revenues, a problem that ALP governments have traditionally been ill-equipped to handle.

I think the next three years will be a bumpy ride. OTOH they have the advantage that there doesn't appear to be anyone in the Liberal fold who will be able address the myriad problems they face or to explain their positions to the average voter.

Hi John,

Nice comments, I might be a bit rough, but certainly agree. Something like the death of Stalin in 1952, millions of Russians were beside themselves with grief, at the "loss" of Comrade Stalin. Not because they loved Stalin and Stalinism, they just didn't know that there was anything else in life. Comrade Stalin was credited (propaganda) as the provider of everything they had, they had been led to believe there was no alternative. BUT there was an alternative, they just didn't know about it.

Like I said earlier, I had 5 grandchildren 18 to 25 who voted, my assessment of how they went, 1 Green definite, 1 Green or Labor, 3 Labor for sure. Put candidly, they seen the LNP as an irrelevant joke, with nothing to offer them moving foreword in life. The Green Girl thought trying to buy her vote for 25 cents was pathetic (anyway she catches the train). I liked what she said on Sunday night; "Why didn't Dutton just give the people some beads and blankets, and be done with it, sure didn't offer anything else."

Well John, you conveniently overlooked that they would have to go back
in 20 years and start renewing the renewables.
That would stretch out the completion time.
It begins to look like that tradition of painting the Harbour Bridge.
However it is worse than that, the cost of removing the non performing
renewables is on the landholder farmer.
The whole project will be a permanent nightmare.
Nuclear power stations are just like how we managed coal fired power
for the last hundred years.

Hi Bezza,

The fact is the Noalition had a brain fart explosion called nuclear power, which blew up in their face. The useless mob couldn't land an energy policy in almost 10 years in office. Led by the Cow Cocky Party the Liberals jumped on the bandwagon, and suffered the consequences on Saturday. You would know as much about renewables as you know about Islam, NOTHING!

The Liberal Party are not stabbing each other in the back, no time for such pleasantries, no they are so enraged with the disaster and playing the blame game, it stabbing front on, and who cares!

Hi Trumpster, you stuck your beak in, that's a surprise.

Come off it, you were all cock-a-hoop before the election with your adulation of Mini-Me Trump Dutton. You wanted Trumpism for Australia. How did your Trump Party do, Fat Clive spent $60 million and scored less than 2% of the vote. p/s The Labor landslide was too much for the Greens who got wiped out in the lower house by Labor, did well in the Senate so that's a positive. As I said, I voted Greens 1 Labor 2, I suppose you are to ashamed to lay your card on the table.