True allies share common visions, common objectives, common strategies, common standards of behaviour and common criteria of success.

The problem facing Australia at the moment is that we now have very little in common with the United States, our supposedly foremost ally in whom we have long trusted our international security.

The US is in a parlous state, both domestically and internationally, it’s long-touted democracy quickly unravelling into an extraordinary right-wing authoritarianism and its global hegemony evaporating before our eyes. Although in reality there are few remaining of the common interests necessary to support a true alliance, the Australian Government continues to ignore the reality of events and state actions and insist that the US is our most important strategic partner and should remain the primary pillar of our defence.

There is no discussion, or at least no public discussion, of the many actions and events over the last several decades which call into question whether we can or should rely on American power.

On the domestic front, the US is very much a divided nation. Long-standing political divisions have been transformed into social violence and the resulting dysfunction weaponised to justify the rapid shift towards authoritarianism.

The Republican Party has been captured by a right-wing clique whose philosophy is set out clearly in Project 2025. The end result is a US Government run unconstitutionally by the president under executive orders, memoranda and proclamations that effectively sideline the role of Congress, and the final arbiter, the Supreme Court, stacked with his appointees.

And so we have:

A convicted criminal occupying the nation’s highest office who is unashamedly profiteering from his position, who is abusing government power to pursue policies of personal retribution and who is spearheading attacks on fundamental constitutional rights to freedom of expression and due process. All with the benefit of a far-reaching immunity found by the Supreme Court.

A federal government in disarray, parts of it like DOGE and ICE dismembering and destroying other parts with important social roles and benefits such as education, environmental protection, forward-looking climate policies, health and Medicaid.

Anything remotely resembling social justice is expunged and the tax and benefits systems adjusted to favour the wealthy at the expense of the poor.

An expanded system of social repression with the introduction of the military into what should be civil policing roles, the creation of an authority whose masked enforcers kidnap citizens from the streets and imprison them in distant jails without judicial oversight, and now the repression of critical media voices by underhand pressure exerted on media organisations.

The reaction of the Australian Government to this? Prime Minister Albanese consistently says only that he refuses to “give a running commentary” on the president or his administration.

The behaviour of our foremost ally on the international stage is as bad or worse. The US has long been notorious for intermeddling in the affairs of other countries, invariably with disastrous results for the victims. It now does its bullying and blackmail in a much more blatant fashion. It tears up international trade agreements, bullies other countries politically and economically, and has imperilled the international financial system through financial intermeddling via tariffs on both friends and foes and sanctions that abuse reserve currency status.

The US has lost any soft power it had with its gutting of foreign aid, its use of threats to try to secure its demands of other nations, its wilful disregard for international institutions such as the United Nations and the ICJ and ICC, and its complicity in the Gaza genocide.

Finally, as the self-proclaimed champion of the rules-based international order, the US has illegally invaded sovereign nations, most commonly this century in the Middle East and most recently Yemen, Iran and Qatar, the latter being — like us — a US ally. It has now embraced illegally bombing Venezuelan boats on the high seas, probably intending to provoke a response that it will use to justify intervention there.

Is this the conduct we expect of our ally, our “lead partner”? What has our government done or said about any of this? It’s too craven to complain directly to or publicly criticise the US so it simply ignores this egregiously illegal conduct.

The world has changed markedly since our relations with the US blossomed after World War II, and the US has changed for the worse over the last quarter-century. It’s time Australia took a long hard look at its principles, aspirations, expectations and capabilities to decide objectively what is truly in our nation’s best interests going forward.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.