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As democracy in the United States continues to deteriorate, Australia not only has to reckon with the possibility of a second Trump presidency and what it means for our place in the world, but also how we can strengthen our own democracy and democratic institutions against similar corrosion.
As awash in gun violence as the United States is, the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump is unsurprising, but still entirely shocking.
President Joe Biden, responding to the shooting, condemned political violence saying: "The idea that there's political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of."
Many pundits echoed that sentiment, ignoring the fact the US is known for its many famous presidential assassinations and attempted assassinations.
It's only a few years since former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul was almost beaten to death, since Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head, and of course, not long since Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6 to hang VP Mike Pence and overthrow the results of an election that Trump lied was stolen from him.
The United States is a country founded with political violence, and where violence has regularly been used to achieve political ends - and that's before we get to US foreign policy and wars.
Thankfully, Australia's gun control laws have been effective at stopping the kinds of massacres and shootings that have become an everyday feature of US life - surely John Howard's greatest legacy as Prime Minister.
Republican attempts to blame the Democrats for violence and violent rhetoric in politics are absolutely shameless. No party has done more to ensure that a person could open carry an assault rifle to a political event than the Republicans.
Donald Trump jnr mocked Paul Pelosi in the wake of a violent home invasion that left him with a fractured skull and Donald Trump himself infamously told white supremacist militia groups not to stand down, but to "stand back and stand by".
Trump's delight in violence is public and well-documented and it is even more concerning following the US Supreme Court's decision that gives President's immunity for official acts.
Dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor said "The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President ... In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law."
Four Corners this week investigated Project 2025, a plan to radically reform the United States government cooked up by the Heritage Foundation. Former Department of Justice lawyer, Erica Newland, told Four Corners: "There's a playbook that authoritarians use: they aggrandise executive authority. They politicise independent institutions. They quash dissent. They spread misinformation. They target vulnerable communities. They corrupt elections, and they stoke violence. Donald Trump has engaged in all seven of these."
These are red lines Australia must not only condemn in our US ally, but also guard against entering and corrupting our own democracy.
Australia has much to be proud of. We can be proud that we invented the secret ballot (known as the "Australian ballot" elsewhere around the world). Independent committees including electoral officers redraw electoral boundaries in a public and transparent process that avoid blatant gerrymandering, a feature of US politics.
The Australian Electoral Commission is a critical democratic institution whose independence and integrity ensures free and fair elections. Our no-frills pencil-and-paper ballots system of voting, counted and checked by scrutineers, is tried and tested and trusted.
It was deeply concerning to see Peter Dutton smear the AEC during the Voice referendum, questioning the AEC's integrity and claiming on radio that the Prime Minister had attempted to 'have a process that's rigged'. The last thing we want is for the AEC to be undermined so that sections of the population are encouraged to question valid election results.
![The attempted assassination of Donald Trump is shocking, but not surprising. Picture Getty Images The attempted assassination of Donald Trump is shocking, but not surprising. Picture Getty Images](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/pMXRnDj3SUU44AkPpn97sC/34cc0ea4-79c4-4265-a9f0-88333c78d53b.jpg/r0_311_2982_1988_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The government is also considering electoral and political finance reforms.
Chief among them should be to introduce truth in political advertising laws to make it illegal to lie in a political ad, as well as the repeal of the "political campaigners" laws aimed at silencing charities from engaging in advocacy, which were rammed through the Parliament in the dying days of the Morrison government (and which the Labor government promised to repeal).
Political finance reform is also needed, but if done poorly, could make Australian elections less fair, entrenching incumbents and concealing rather than expose the undue influence moneyed interests enjoy over our politicians and parties.
The Australia Institute identified principles to guide fair political finance reform, including giving voters a range of choices about who represents them; not making it harder for new candidates to compete with incumbents; providing a level playing field regardless of whether candidates are members of a political party or independents; factoring in the significant taxpayer-funded advantages of incumbency, with an eye to reducing disadvantages already faced by challengers.
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Compulsory preferential voting is the unsung hero of Australian politics and ensures no Australian's vote is ever wasted. In the US two-party system, a vote for an independent or minor party candidate is a wasted vote. Proportional representation would be better, but at least in Australia if your preferred candidate isn't elected, your vote passes at full value to your next preference.
Watching the bin fire that is US politics, it's easy to be grateful not only for Australia's gun control laws, for our non-politicised High Court, our independent Electoral Commission, compulsory voting, preferential voting, our public broadcasters, and for the Australian public's strong commitment to stamp out political corruption.
That's not to say there aren't many things Australia can improve upon, but when Australians vote at the next federal election, voters should be armed with the facts, fully confident in the integrity of the results and that our political leaders will respect those results.
Unfortunately, US voters won't have the confidence. For Australia, the United States is a lesson in how easily a democracy can be perverted and corroded by determined forces, unless you guard against it.
- Ebony Bennett is deputy director for the Australia Institute and a regular columnist for The Canberra Times.