Australian Politics

Okay, you can talk about how it works in theory, but in practice we see the rightward ratchet effect. The LNP won an election and immediately raided the ABC journo's offices, which led to David McBride's prosecution, and they did robodebt and prosecuted Richard Boyle.

Then the ALP comes back into power and just allows those prosecutions to continue. We've got another whistleblower prosecution just the last couple of weeks.

That's literally the ratchet effect. They are barely doing anything, just marking time.

The rightward ratchet is not a purely US thing, it is how liberal democracies all over the world behave. The mechanisms are all slightly different but the reality is that our governments are captured by the wealthy and powerful, and they want them to go right, so that's where they go. The two sides of electoral politics are simply a more sustainable method of maintaining that rightward movement.

You say preferences send a message, but I don't feel particularly heard, do you? You know what sends a stronger message? The removal of PMs that go against US interests. Our politicians know exactly where they stand.