Duplicity rules
FOR most of us, rules have always been rules. Laws and agreements we make with society ensure we don’t fall into chaos.
It’s a simple concept that we instil in our children. We have house rules and state rules, local rules and rules of the game.
Things like: don’t talk with your mouth full; don’t run with scissors; don’t stand for election to parliament if you’re a dual citizen.
They’re not always fun to follow, but they remind us what we value.
Other countries have their own different rules.
In America, you don’t have to wear a seatbelt and you can own as many guns as you can open carry, but if you want to be their President, you can’t be a dual citizen, you have to be an American.
They take politics pretty seriously in the United States.
Right now they are experiencing a critical moment in their history. Donald Trump has unlocked the box of nationalism and is channel surfing while his countrymen fight it out in the streets.
Americans believe in the right to free speech and free assembly and, so, over the weekend the world watched in amazement while the police of Charlottesville protected white supremacists as they carried flaming tiki torches and swastikas and chanted Nazi slogans such as “blood and soil”.
It is a disturbing insight into the psyche of the United States.
Mr Trump refused to condemn the swastikas and the chanting and suggested there was blame on “many sides”.
He has also refused to label the man who drove his car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters as a “terrorist”.
The Trump travel ban did not prevent this murder, but Mr Trump and his White House cronies will not visit the victims, nor will he articulate the name of the murdered American.
He doesn’t have to, there are no rules around what the President needs to do in this circumstance, but sometimes you don’t need a rule book to know what is right and wrong.
When Mr Trump became President and proclaimed “America First” there were plenty of Australians who cheered him on.
They thought he was a wrecker, a drainer of the swamp, but this week all we have seen is a baby-boomer threatening nuclear war and refusing to condemn his own far right domestic terrorism.
Mr Trump has proved to be the Side-Show Bob of international politics. A sad clown who is prepared to destroy and condemn if it means he will get his own way. He will break the rules of acceptable society if it means his opinion polls will improve.
In Australia this week, we have discovered that rules have a different meaning depending on who you are and what you believe.
Over the past fortnight we have been treated to an extraordinary insight into the perception of privilege and birthright. Canberra has been hit with a dose of dual citizenship.
The first two took it on the chin. The Greens’ Waters and Ludlam announced their resignations and walked away. The rest have displayed varying degrees of disdain and disrespect for the rules.
One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts even went so far as to say that he chose not to believe that he was a British citizen.
That’s a pretty personalised interpretati on of the rules.
The Nationals have a couple of double timers. Senator Matt Canavan blamed his mother and then excused himself from the ministry.
His portfolio was taken over by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. This week it was revealed that Barnaby was a Kiwi. A fact that he acknowledged in Question Time. He announced he had renounced it at the weekend.
But this admission means he had no right to stand for election all those years ago, let alone be sitting in Cabinet and voting in the House of Representatives. Those are the rules and he flouted them. The Prime Minister backed him to the hilt and the Foreign Minister blamed Bill Shorten (of course).
Bottom line? Under the Constitution, being a dual citizen is against the rules. But for some reason we are relying on the offenders to enforce their own punishments.
Some of us get our own rule book. While this pantomime is playing out, the Catholic Church is suggesting they may not be prepared to report crimes that are admitted to priests in the confessional. They say they are answerable to a higher power. You don’t have to be answerable to justice if you’ve got a good enough legal team. Rules aren’t rules any more. Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and director