More than a month in the past I took my postal poll for the US state of Virginia to my native Sydney suburban submit workplace, paid for a registered letter, and despatched it off with hopes for vice-president Kamala Harris’s victory and the defeat of the convicted prison Donald Trump.
I used to be stunned what number of of my Australian pals expressed envy once I instructed them I had voted within the US presidential election. “I want I may vote too,” one mentioned, “a lot is using on this”.
Everyone knows the end result now, and as devastating because it was for my American family and friends, there are such a lot of Australians and other people around the globe dismayed as effectively. The reverberations from this election will oscillate outwards: the Ukraine battle, the battle in Gaza, Nato, commerce tariffs, reproductive rights. It should exacerbate the tradition of misogyny and hamper the makes an attempt to sluggish international warming and local weather change.
And but, many Individuals selected to not train their democratic proper to vote. From the early statistics, voter turnout for this election was round 64%. However the institutionalised inequities of racism and capitalism usually are not going to be solved by obligatory voting. And it’s nearly unimaginable to think about obligatory voting applied in a rustic the place particular person freedom is so extremely prized.
Once I moved to Australia 22 years in the past, I couldn’t recover from how a lot management the federal government may train: from random breath testing to fines for non-voting – these items are incomprehensible in a rustic which places a lot emphasis on the Invoice of Rights and particular person liberty. But the irony is, this democracy itself is now below risk, with Trump’s unabashed admiration of dictatorships and strongmen.
What may we do, then, within the face of the helplessness we really feel in Australia at the results of the US election: a victory for division, dehumanisation, concern and greed? Combat more durable to guard the rights we have now in Australia that the USA is on the cusp of dropping (or has already misplaced). The rights of girls over their very own our bodies. The rights of LGBTQIA+ folks, folks with a incapacity, and minority teams. Work more durable to guard the rights of First Nations folks, refugees and immigrants.
I’ve by no means been so grateful for my chosen nation, for the Australian electoral fee, gun management and Medicare. However I can not flip away from my birthplace both, I’ll do all the pieces I can to assist democracy there. The sensible US author Rebecca Solnit wrote: “The truth that we can not save all the pieces doesn’t imply we can not save something and all the pieces we are able to save is value saving.”
I washed the dinner dishes on Wednesday night time with my radio tuned to ABC Traditional, too weary and depressed to take heed to extra information. Yolngu artist Gurrumul’s live performance on the Sydney Opera Home was enjoying, and his stunning, bittersweet music melded with the flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos that flew overhead at nightfall, their mournful calls echoing my heartache. The pure world and artistic endeavors, literature and music will all the time be locations of solace from existential grief.
However we are able to’t cease paying consideration, both. We can not turn into numbed by apathy and disillusionment. Each Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have despatched their congratulations to Donald Trump already. The final place we need to discover ourselves now’s in America’s lengthy shadow.
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