Australian writer Michael Taylor has a cogent piece published today at both the Daily Kos and the website of the Australian Independent Media Network.
As an Australian living in the U.S., I found this piece (and Taylor’s follow-up remarks) to be both insightful and heartening. I share both in their entirety below.
The Distant Thunder
How Trump’s America Echoes
in Our Own Backyard
By Michael Taylor
Australian Independent Media Network
September 29, 2025
From the sun-bleached beaches of Surfers Paradise to the quiet verandahs of the suburbs, we Australians have long viewed American politics with a mixture of fascination and detachment. It was a dramatic, often chaotic, television drama unfolding an ocean away. But in the era of Donald Trump, that detachment has curdled into profound anxiety. What we are witnessing is not just another chapter in American political turmoil; from our vantage point, it resembles a step-by-step guide to authoritarianism, and the consequences are lapping at our own shores.
Let’s be blunt. A good majority of Australians see President Trump as the single greatest threat to world peace and economic stability. This isn’t a casual dislike; it’s a rational conclusion based on observable fact. We see an assault on the very pillars that uphold a democracy: the relentless attacks on a free press as “the enemy of the people,” the refusal to accept certified election results, the weaponisation of the justice system against political rivals, and the language of vengeance and retribution. These are not the actions of a robust democracy; they are the hallmarks of a creeping fascism, a playbook we’ve seen enacted in dark chapters of history.
The instability this creates is not contained within U.S. borders. A world where America’s commitment to NATO is transactional, where long-standing alliances are undermined by caprice, is a more dangerous and volatile world. Economically, the spectre of tariff wars and a rejection of global cooperation threatens the intricate supply chains and markets upon which our own prosperity depends. The “America First” mantra, in practice, feels like “Global Stability Last.”
But perhaps what is most concerning, and most visceral for us here, is how Trump has enabled the racists and bigots in our own country. He didn’t create them, but he gave them a megaphone and a permission slip. The toxic rhetoric that vilifies migrants, Muslims, and minorities – once confined to the dark corners of the internet – has been validated by the most powerful office in the world. We see it in the emboldened bravado of our own fringe groups, in the coarsening of our public discourse, and in the feeling that it’s now more acceptable to voice prejudice. He has, in effect, exported a licence for hatred.
To dismiss this as mere American political theatre is a dangerous folly. The fight for the soul of America is also a fight for the norms and values that underpin the free world, values Australia has long shared. It is a battle between pluralism and prejudice, between truth and “alternative facts,” between the rule of law and the cult of personality.
As Australians we cannot afford to be passive spectators. We must loudly reaffirm our commitment to our own democratic principles: a respectful multicultural society, an independent judiciary, and a press that holds power to account. We must call out the imported bigotry for what it is and reject the politics of division. The distant thunder from Trump’s America is a warning. We must ensure the storm does not reach our shores.
At the Daily Kos, one comment noted that:
According to this recent poll, 29% of Australians would vote for Donald Trump if given the chance, and 36% hold a favorable opinion of him. These numbers are striking – not just for what they say about Trump’s global appeal, but for how they exceed the traditional ceiling of Australia’s hard-right base [which] suggests all this isn’t just about ideology. It’s about identity, spectacle, and a kind of political tribalism that transcends traditional party lines – even in countries like Australia, where the political landscape is markedly different from the United States.
In response, Michael Taylor shared the following:
Down here in Australia, most opinion polls are churned out by the mainstream media, and – fun fact – Murdoch’s got his mitts on 70% of the print game, all leaning hard to the right. Not exactly a balanced chorus.
The real gut-punch poll, though, was the May federal election. Opposition leader Peter Dutton went full mini-Trump, mirroring Trump’s playbook and banking on his party’s deep-pocketed backers to seal the deal. The outcome? A walloping for the ages – biggest conservative smackdown in 60 years. Even Dutton got the boot from his own seat. It was such a wipeout, it’ll take the right wing opposition a few election cycles to even think about crawling back. The loud and clear message? Aussies gave Trump’s style a resounding “nah, thanks.”
Still, the Murdoch machine keeps belting out Trump’s tune, amplifying the extreme-right voices in the party like they’re the only act in town.
Related Off-site Links:
Trump’s War on America – Chris Hedges (The Chris Hedges Report, September 28, 2025).
“This Is What Fascists Do”: Trump Labels Antifa a Terrorist Organization in His War on Dissent – Democracy Now! (September 24, 2025).
UPDATES: “Deeply Un-American”: Trump Tells Generals to Use U.S. Cities as Military “Training Grounds” – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, September 30, 2025).
Now That Fascism Is Here – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, October 4, 2025)
White House Responds with “Authoritarian Propaganda” as Judge Blocks National Guard in Portland – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, October 5, 2025).
The Rule of Law vs. the Rule of Trump – William Kristol, Andrew Egger, and Jim Swift (The Bulwark, October 6, 2025).
See also the following chronologically-ordered Wild Reed posts:
• Marisa Kabas: “We’re Witnessing a Coup By an Unelected Billionaire Propped Up By a Felonious President”
• Timothy Snyder on Resisting the Oligarchs’ “Logic of Destruction”
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• “An Extremely Clever Ruse” by and for the Rich: Owen Jones on Elon Musk’s Coup
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• Quote of the Day – February 21, 2025
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History. There’s No Comparison”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• “Protesting Is What Patriotism Looks Like in Public”: The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2025
• Rep. Ro Khanna: Quote of the Day – June 24, 2025
• “This Is Fascism”
• The Declaration of Resistance
• The Choice Before Us
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2025
• How Democrats Can Start Winning Again
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• James Greenberg: “The Choices We Make Matter”
• Brent Molnar on the “Cold War in Our Own House”
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Jason Duchin: “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Bowing to an Idol
• Marianne Williamson on the Need for “Radical Love” in Responding to Trump’s Dismantling of Democracy
• Brent Molnar on the the Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel: “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• Memes of the Times – September 2025
• Jason Duchin: Quote of the Day – September 24, 2025
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• Will Potter on Trump’s War on Dissent: “This Is What Fascists Do”
See also:
• The Neoliberal Economic Doctrine: A View from Australia
• When Neutrality Is an Inhumane Choice
• Marianne Williamson on America’s “Cults of Madness”
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• Chauncey Devega on the Ongoing Danger of the Trump Cult
• Jeff Sharlet on the Fascist Ideology of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Robert Reich: Quote of the Day – April 11, 2023
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
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