The usual cast of villains were there. The radical left, the fake news, the People's Republic of China, the deep state, the intelligence agencies, even Barack Hussein Obama. So, too, the alleged but consistently disproven crime - the stolen election of 2020.

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It was familiar ground. So familiar that two of three big US TV networks declined to broadcast the national address live, lest it contain falsehoods which might expose them to libel actions in the courts.

They weren't about to be caught in the same trap as Fox News, which was forced to pay the Dominion voting machine company about $1 billion after broadcasting false claims it had tried to rig the 2020 election.

Not that Donald Trump accepted that reasoning. He claimed NBC and ABC, along with rogue bureaucrats, were part of a deep state plot to cover up Chinese meddling in US elections. Their broadcast licences ought to be revoked, he said. He also claimed without evidence that China paid journalists to write negative stories about him during his first term.

The integrity of US elections, the president claimed, was worse than most Third World countries.

It was paranoia writ large. Hard to watch but it reinforced my faith in our own system of democracy.

Compulsory voting has served us well. Sure, it might be inconvenient to be required to turn up at your local school every three or four years - or visit prepoll earlier - to cast your vote but that mandatory participation reminds us our democratic rights come with responsibility.

Yes, for weeks ahead of polls we're bombarded with an avalanche of annoying advertising - on our TV screens, on radio, on our social media. We endure the endless cosplay of........

© Canberra Times