Cameron Stewart
(This is an extract from an article by Cameron Stewart in The Australian on November 9, 2024)
When Donald Trump’s campaign was trying to reach voters in America’s heartland they found a simple slogan: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.
The line, which appeared in Trump campaign ads across the country, captured the restless and darkening mood of more than 70 million Americans who believed that Kamala Harris and the Democrats no longer spoke to them or to their vision of America.
It neatly summarised what working mums and dads in gritty struggling small towns across the vast plains of middle America were trying to tell Washington: “This contest isn’t about racial inequality, gender inequality and L.G.B.T.Q. inequality, it’s about gas prices, our mortgages and our groceries. It’s the economy stupid.”
In the eyes of small town and rural America only one person seemed to be speaking their language. At every rally and campaign stop, Donald Trump thundered about the cost of living, about the brutal inflation under the Biden-Harris administration and about how he was going to fix the economy “like I did last time.”
A majority of Americans did see not their most important issues as being climate change, or racial, gender or sexual equality or even democracy. They just wanted a better life. A chance to make a living and create opportunity for their family. They wanted to afford that house, to pay off that mortgage and to buy that car and fill it with cheap gas and buy sneakers for their kids…
Trump’s comeback started the moment when he decided that he would follow his biggest strength – sheer gut instinct for politics – in his third campaign for the White House. Yes he had advisers, but can you name any of them? Even if you can name them, you know that he didn’t listen to them.
The only person who seemed to know Donald Trump’s path back to the White House was Donald Trump.
So the question now is, can the same messaging work in Australia to deliver government to the Liberal-National coalition?
Cameron Stewart, who has covered the last three US presidential elections will speak at the Wombat Post AGM about “Donald Trump’s Comeback: What it means for America, Australia and the Media.” He will give his personal perspective about what has shaped American politics, the Trump phenomenon and what a Trump victory means for Australia and for the media.
Cameron is an expert in US politics having twice been a US correspondent for The Australian, earlier as New York correspondent during the late 1990s and again during the first Trump presidency in Washington from 2017 to 2021. He combines investigative reporting on foreign affairs, defence and national security with feature writing for the Weekend Australian Magazine. Cameron has won numerous awards for his work, including the Graham Perkin award for Australian Journalist of the Year.
The meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 4th at 6:30 pm pm at the Victoria Park Pavilion, 3021 Ballan-Daylesford Rd, Daylesford.
The meeting is open to the public. Admission is free but bookings are essential for catering purposes at trybooking.
