It was indeed, a great night for the right.
King Malcolm the First of Wentworthia was utterly humiliated.
The Leftist cuckoo who usurped the leadership of the largest centre-right party in the country as well as the Prime Ministership on the basis of his electoral appeal, has proven himself to be electoral poison.
But even better, the slap to the face suffered by every right-of-centre Australian has been avenged by the vote for the minor parties.
As I advised last month, the sensible patriots of Australia took their vote elsewhere.
Despite what Mark Textor and the rest of the Turnbull inner circle might believe, grassroots conservatives do indeed matter.
As the national count stands so far in the Senate, the six biggest parties clearly to the right of the Coalition (One Nation, LDP, Family First, the Shooters, the CDP and the Australian Liberty Alliance) garnered over ten percent of the vote.
By contrast the Greens, despite the usual media cheerleading, as of now are under nine percent, with no other extremist party of the left coming close to breaching the one percent mark.
In Queensland, One Nation is beating the Greens on their own and are almost hitting ten per cent, the same six parties combined are over sixteen percent, and if you add Bob Katter’s mob, even more.
Let that sink in for a moment.
If everyone who voted for the six most popular right-wing parties had instead voted for a single party, then that party would now almost certainly control the balance of power in the upper house, able to dictate policy to the opportunistic sell-outs who make up team red and team blue.
The need for the maverick, independent-minded and sometimes stubborn individualists who populate the right-of-centre in Australia to merge together into a more powerful force is clearer than ever. Especially with what may be Malcolm’s parting poison gift of a Senate voting system that discriminates against micro parties and benefits the likes of Xenophon and the Greens.
Of course, saying we need fewer parties on the right splitting the vote is easy; doing something about it is like herding white cats in a snowstorm, while blind, and possibly drunk.
I talk to people from most of the parties I mentioned above, and while working out a common policy platform would be difficult but not impossible, the personality clashes are another matter.
This is why it was seriously depressing to read Paul Zanetti’s piece on the election. Not just because I hate to see a man I respect and whose work I admire get it so wrong, but because, across many of the minor parties on the right who were swamped this election by the tsunami of One Nation, he is fairly representative of many of the activists and members I’ve talked to since Sunday.
Paul wrote:
“The fact is, without the Hanson factor, ALA would have secured Senate seats…
I’ve no respect for Pauline Hanson. She’s an empty headed white supremacist opportunist….
Yet, she has swept to power (with expectations of 4 Senate sets) based on her dislike of an ideology she knows almost nothing about…
That, in a nutshell, is what happened to ALA and what has happened to the conservative vote
It’s split….
My only surprise is how many anti-Islam votes went straight to Hanson, not the ALA. Never overestimate the intelligence of voters.”
Paul is bitter and it’s understandable.
And in many ways he’s right on the money, the conservative vote in Australia is indeed split.
But it’s hard truth time.
Expectations from me, from sections of the conservative media, and from the hard-working activists who did so much work over so many years to make the ALA a going concern and to bring the dangerous aspects of Islam to light, were high, and disappointment is reasonable.
The truth is that if Pauline Hanson had not barnstormed back on the scene, the ALA probably would have picked up extra votes, but to argue that without One Nation the ALA would have been guaranteed a senate seat or even more is silly.
Despite huge amounts of work building an online profile from thousands of dedicated unpaid activists and supporters, the ALA did not cut through with the general public to the same extent that Hanson and her story of twenty years of dogged, gutsy perseverance did.
Neither did the LDP, despite the sterling efforts of David Leyonhjelm and some very hard-working activists. Neither did Fred Nile, despite decades of brave effort. Neither did Family First, despite their broad network of activists gained through faith circles.
And all of the above gained more voter support than the ALA.
If anything, the ALA, being new on the scene and having both libertarian and socially conservative aspects, stole votes that would otherwise have gone to them.
The bitterness, insults to the intelligence of the voters and especially the left-wing-style virtue signalling (“White Supremacist?” Really?) from so many people who should otherwise be celebrating the punishment of Turnbull the Leftist scumbag is disheartening.
The different wings of the Greens can’t stand each other, but they work together and are able to continually drag the media narrative and both major parties to the left.
If you think Pauline Hanson is The Answer it’s now time to get off your chair and do something to help her. One Nation is looking to run candidates in all electorates in the coming Queensland state election; if you don’t help now with time or money, there’s no point whining on the internet tomorrow.
And if you think as Paul Zanetti, and many libertarians I’ve talked to do, that there is no way that you could ever work with a big government nativist like Hanson, now is the time to join whatever party suits you and attempt to create a common platform to merge with the other small parties on the right.
Now is a time to celebrate, but a time for action as well.
Six or more parties splitting the right wing vote is a sad joke.
We might not all be able to get along, but if we can’t find a way to unite at least some of these hardworking activists, sparse resources and courageous public figures under fewer than the current dozen banners, the future looks grim.
Maybe I’m a naïve dreamer, but the weekend showed me that a better nation is possible, and that a united right would have the electoral and community support to make it happen.
It’s time to stop playing games, time to make those wrecking our country pay.
It’s time for the right to unite and fight; a better future is within our grasp.
The Western Revolt described by XYZ’s own David Hiscox has come to Australia: will you do your part? Or complain about those who do?