Elections prove why Trump Doctrine is on shaky ground

It is for the world to say that we are not going down this crazy route and downward spiral

- MUSHTAK PARKER

CALL it what you want, the so-called ‘incumbency curse’ in democracies around the world.

Whether it’s the figment of the stunted imagination of a political hack or activists most likely in support of populist far-right movements and phenomena, the reality is far from the rhetoric of aspirations and actual outcomes.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government was re-elected to a second term just a few days ago in a landslide victory defying not only the so-called ‘incumbency curse’ (if ever there is one) but also making a mockery of the fickleness of the so-called mainstream media in talking up the Trump effect, which the BBC said loomed large over the election.

The fact that the leader of the Opposition conservative (read Trumpian) Liberal-National coalition Peter Dutton lost his deposit and seat, let alone his coalition suffering a thumping defeat nationwide, illustrates that the ‘incumbency curse’ is really a Trumpian hex or jinx which should make any far-right and centre-right populist politician think twice about embracing the vanities of the governance and policy insanities of the Donald, let alone of his personality defects which include two recent picture postings of him dressed as the King of America and a few days ago as the new Pope.

Albanese had called out Trump's tariff tantrums when they were announced in early April as “not the act of a friend”. But he got his cue from another newly elected Prime Minister, Mark Carney of Canada, who only two weeks ago reversed a massive 22% poll disadvantage, to return the centre-left Liberal Party to a fourth consecutive term in office in a stunning election victory and casting the Opposition Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, another Trumpian clone, into the political doldrums for at least another four years.