Weak leaders are bringing the
West to its knees
PETA CREDLIN
At the recent meeting of the G7, the only democratic leader
present with an approval rating north of 40 per cent was its
host, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.
The best of the rest, at 37 per cent, was the United States’ Joe
Biden (although this was before his debate disaster), followed
by Canada’s Justin Trudeau at 30 per cent, Germany’s Olaf
Schulz at 25 per cent, Britain’s Rishi Sunak also at 25 per cent,
France’s Emmanuel Macron at 21 per cent, and Japan’s Fumo
Kishida at just 13 per cent.
Sunak is almost certain to be thrashed in the British elections
on Thursday and a way-past-his prime Biden might well be
dumped by his party even before November’s US election.
Our own Anthony Albanese’s current 42 per cent approval (for
a net approval rate of minus 11) looks almost glowing, yet his
government will almost certainly go backwards at the next
election.
Not for almost a century has strong and confident democratic
leadership been so needed yet almost never has the leadership
of the main democracies been so lacklustre. And so, why? First,
it’s because almost none of the current crop of leaders has
addressed their societies’ underlying problems.
Second, it’s because large percentages of the electorate in
these main democracies feel politically homeless – indeed disenfranchised.
And third, as suggested on this page earlier this week (“The
West hasn’t figured out what’s going wrong. Voters are the
problem”, 2/7), democratic electorates are, as yet, in no mood
to welcome the leadership that’s needed.
As the US commentator George Will said during an earlier
dispiriting period (the late 1970s), “the cry goes up for
leadership from millions of people who wouldn’t know it if
they saw it, and would reject it if they did”.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the widespread perception
that liberal market democracy was permanently ascendant, the
main democracies have militarily, economically and even
culturally disarmed. Yet it’s one thing to recognise the
gathering storm; quite another to have a plan to deal with it.
For all its residual strength, compared to China, the US is
militarily much weaker than even five years back. Certainly,
it’s a long time since the mere appearance of a US carrier strike
force in the Taiwan Straits would be enough to deter any
thoughts of aggression from Beijing.
As the Ukraine war has shown, collectively, the main
democracies’ preference for butter over guns means they’re
woefully incapable of matching the armaments production,
even of Russia, whose GDP in US dollar terms is scarcely a third
more than Australia’s.
And as the subsequent war in Gaza shows, not only are the
main democracies scarcely capable of maintaining two
democratic allies’ conflicts at once – let alone three, should
China attack Taiwan – but large sections of their people and
leadership can’t decide whose side they’re on: that of the
Middle East’s only functioning democracy, or an apocalyptic
death cult.
Meanwhile, all the main democracies are engaged in economic
self-harm in the name of climate change and other luxury
beliefs. The latest example is our own parliament’s banning of
the live sheep trade this week on the grounds of alleged cruelty
to animals.
And the main Anglosphere countries are full of doubt about
their fundamental legitimacy and self-worth: America over
slavery, Britain over colonialism, and Australia over the
dispossession of the original inhabitants.
Very few democratic leaders show unqualified pride in their
countries or appreciation of how the Pax Americana has helped
the wider world, until very recently, to be more free, more fair,
more rich, prosperous, and more safe for more people than
ever before in history; and that migrants to their countries
have won the lottery of life and should be grateful.
And almost none of them are prepared to say that in order to
stay free, fair, and prosperous, the main democracies need to
be less obsessive about reducing emissions and climate
catastrophism, much readier to clamp down on out-of-control
immigration, much more strict about morally relativist and
culturally self-loathing education systems, and be willing to
make at least some sacrifices in support of freedom.
The partial exceptions are Meloni, who’s been better at railing
against immigration in opposition than reducing it in
government; and Donald Trump, although he never quite
“built the wall”, didn’t even come close to “draining the
swamp” and continues to pretend that there’s no cost to
unilateral protectionism and no downside to America opting
out of being the world’s policeman.
Britain is about to get a greenleft Labour government with a
super majority, not because the electorate has much
enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer but because voters, especially strong conservative ones, are utterly disillusioned with a Tory
party that (Brexit aside) hasn’t governed like one. France could
be about to get a so-called “far right” National Assembly
majority because the longestablished centre-right party
comprehensively failed to respond to voters’ concerns about
mass illegal migration that is impacting on living standards
and social cohesion.
That’s because when parties of the centre (left and right)
consistently fail to address popular concerns, parties on the
fringe that do so will eventually get traction.
Both the Gaullists in France and the Conservatives in Britain
have been part of the official “uniparty” consensus that
immigration is always good and that renewable power is
indisputably cheap, but that’s not the perception of people on
“struggle street” which is why all the political establishments,
left and right, are under pressure, either from fringe parties
(such as Reform UK in Britain) or internal insurgents (such as
Trump in the US).
Yet almost no one contending for high office, establishment or
insurgent, is prepared to tell voters the truth that there are few
cost-free changes. Trump has nothing to say about America’s
unsustainable deficits beyond “growth will fix it”.
Looking at
the creaking NHS, no British leader is prepared to say that
patients simply cannot always get treatment that’s the best,
immediate, and for free; so, one or more will often have to
give.
Here in Australia, it’s generally accepted that the NDIS, for
instance, is a fiscal time bomb but no one will face up to the
fact that eligibility and entitlements have to be curbed if the
scheme is to be sustainable. Our officialdom recalls the fate of
the 2014 budget, the last one that attempted difficult economic
reform, and concludes that things might have to be much
worse before most voters would willingly accept the need to wind some things back. In a democracy, there can’t be strong
leadership without strong voters which is why countries
ultimately get the leaders they deserve.
And yet, some change-for-thebetter might be in the offing. By
being upfront with voters that nuclear power is the only way to
get to net zero and keep the lights on, and that the inescapable
choice is between paying more for a reliable emissions-free
system, or even more for an unreliable one, at least Peter
Dutton has shown the political integrity we claim to expect of a
leader.
The question now is whether voters have sufficient collective
character to recognise it.