On Friday, one of the biggest stories in Australia was the possible cancellation of New Year’s Eve fireworks in Sydney, as the result of a stand-off between the rail union and the government.

Meanwhile, in America, the headlines were about an approaching government shutdown. Such shutdowns are not that rare, but the events that threatened to create one this time were. Essentially, there was a bipartisan deal to prevent a shutdown – until Elon Musk decided he wanted to kill it. By The New York Times’ count, the world’s richest man then proceeded to post over 150 times on his social media site, X. During all this, the Times reported, Musk met with President-elect Donald Trump and Amazon co-chair Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, for dinner. The next day, Republicans did what Musk, and then Trump, had asked them to do; then a bill Trump backed failed, too. Ultimately, a bill passed, and the shutdown was avoided.

Artwork: Joe BenkeCredit:

Australians, you sense, are paying far less attention to American politics than they were before November. Still, this was a hint of the large contrasts that might open up over coming months between the two political systems Australians watch most closely. And we may tune in again.

It was a reminder, too, of the dramatically different impacts the pandemic has had in different places. In the United States, it seems to have exacerbated consequential trends that were already under way. These trends, intersecting with the specific person of Trump, have birthed an extended political soap........

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