Why Is a Biden Presidency Very Important for Younger Australians? Or Biden in the White House — Australia in the Doghouse?
Australia’s relationship with the US is the most important aspect of our foreign policy. The relationship between our our Prime Minister and the US President is a crucial part of that relationship.
We’re not alone.
All US Presidents are important to all Australians for the same reasons as everyone else:
The US President is the most influential person in the most influential country in the world.
It doesn’t have the most soldiers, but the US is the most advanced technologically and remains at the top of every list of military powers.
https://www.wonderslist.com/10-most-powerful-militaries/
It does have the biggest economy https://worldbestinfo.com/2020/03/25/largest-economies-in-the-world/.
Most importantly, the international effects of US culture, education, diplomacy and aid give it more soft power than any other country (https://www.raconteur.net/american-culture-rules-the-world/). Globalization has been as much Americanization as it has been anything else.
Trump lost some of that soft power, but the US still has a lot more of it than any other country. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/25/the-us-is-the-worlds-top-soft-power-but-trump-has-damaged-its-reputation.html
But things are different in Australia.
All US Presidents are important to all Australians for other reasons:
First, the US President will expect us to be a loyal global and regional ally. Pine Gap, other US facilities and joint military exercises means that Australia is deeply woven into US military networks. Other countries tend to see Australia as implicated in most things the US military does.
Whether we like it or not, when the US is at war we are at war. Most of the time we act like the long-term reliable friend we have been and support US military action directly. But we are always providing support behind the scenes.
This leads to the second reason that the US President is important to all Australians: the US President is important to our relationship with China. Mostly, the US helps us to resist China’s global economic power and military power in the region.
Australia always get caught in the middle when relations between the US and China deteriorate. We’d better keep an eye on Biden’s relationship with Ji Xinping, if we know what’s good for us.
Third, the political parties in the US and Australia correspond and this is important to our relationship with the country that dominates the world (the global hegemon).
The Liberal Party of Australia is ideologically close to the US Republican Party. So, it is easier when there’s a US Republican President and an Australian Liberal Prime Minister.
The Australian Labor Party is ideologically close to US Democratic Party. So, it is easier when there’s a US Democratic President and an Australian Labor Prime Minister.
It always depends on the chemistry between the people involved, of course, but a difference in personal ideology is important.
We now have a US Democratic President and an Australian Liberal Prime Minister and, no matter what Scott Morrison says, he’s been a Trump man through and through.
Morrison went further than he needed to when it came to international affairs by being Trump’s mate. Most foreign leaders were trying very hard not to show their contempt for Trump https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/04/brief-history-world-leaders-laughing-trump/.
Morrison did not feel that contempt. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/he-s-a-strong-leader-morrison-accepts-invitation-to-visit-trump-in-us-20190713-p526w7.html. He liked Trump. He was one of the few foreign leaders to be seen to truly embrace Trump. I can’t think of a foreign leader who got on better with Trump… Israeli President, Benjamin Netanyahu is a candidate (but he was/is so much smarter than Trump that I wonder whether it was more than just Netanyahu getting what he wanted from Trump).
While he wasn’t going to deny Biden’s victory, Morrison wanted “to thank President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary Mike Pompeo … and the many other members of his cabinet with whom we have had a very good relationship over the years of the Trump administration and of course that will continue through the transition period…” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-08/scott-morrison-thanks-donald-trump-congratulate-joe-biden-harris/12861342
Biden won’t be impressed by Morrison’s support for Trump. But Australia is too good an ally for the US to want to lose us.
Our Prime Minister, though, was a Trump man and that won’t be forgotten in the Biden administration.
And, while his anti-union views won’t impress Biden, it’s Morrison climate change denial that might be a deal-breaker and this is important to younger people.
This US President is important to younger Australians for another reason:
His admiration for Donald Trump wasn’t the only explanation for Scott Morrison’s climate change denial. That started before Trump came to office, when Morrison first became a Tony Abbott man.
As an Abbott Treasurer, Morrison took a lump of coal to the House of Representatives’ Question Time with a message along the lines of ‘Coal is our Friend’ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/09/scott-morrison-brings-coal-to-question-time-what-fresh-idiocy-is-this
It was very important for Morrison to have another climate change denier running the most influential country in the world. It helped justify and reinforce his commitment to maintaining, if not expanding, the fossil fuel industry.
Morrison didn’t attend a meeting of world leaders about climate change to visit Trump. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/as-morrison-jets-off-to-see-trump-other-world-leaders-prepare-for-climate-crisis-talks
Now he and other deniers, like President Bolsonaro who is encouraging farmers to burn down forests in Brazil, don’t have ideological support from the US President.
The Democrats accept that human-caused climate change is real. They won’t act meaningfully to address the problem, of course.
But it means that Morrison has lost a significant ally and any younger Australians who believe that human-caused climate change is real can now exert greater pressure on Morrison and his party.
Because this it isn’t just Morrison losing an ally in climate change denial. The Liberal Party of Australia, and especially its leader, are now out of step with the leader of the most influential country in the world.
A Liberal Prime Minister will always have some difficulties with a Democratic President (especially one who is pro unions, as Biden is).
But we’ve had that before. Recently it was Abbott and Obama.
Interestingly, it was about climate change that the most significant of the many ideological tensions between the two men developed. https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/tony-abbott-s-climate-denial-prompted-barack-obama-s-brisbane-barbs-20200827-p55py0.html
Biden is less eloquent than Obama… but I can’t work out whether that means he will be more able to hide his distaste for our Prime Minister or less able to do so.
We probably won’t end up in the doghouse… Australia is too important to the US.
But listen for plenty of dog whistles to indicate that the US President thinks Australia’s Prime Minister is a fool.
And, if you are a younger person who believes in human-caused climate change and you want to save your future:
The US President is now on your side in your struggle with our Prime Minister.
