Australia

Oh, Hanson is absolutely self-obsessed. So much so that she had herself put in her party' constitution as party leader for life with the right to determine her successor.

I wouldn't class Katter or Lambie as Trumpian, but specifically Katter is very self-obsessed. In general though he is, despite his deeply irritating shtick*, fairly harmless and benign.

Palmer may not have had straight-up electoral success - but he has successfully manipulated public opinion and influenced election outcomes by injecting himself along with huge amounts of money into the campaign cycle and blasting his positions out there. We can largely thank him for the Coalition winning the 2019 election which they themselves absolutely expected to lose. The thing about Palmer is figuring out what his goals are, and aside from making money, those goals thus far have been focused around either preventing a Labor government, or preventing parts of Labor's agenda. However, if those goals ever change towards getting more political power, then Palmer will be able to spend a lot of money to achieve his goals.

One could argue that key reasons for Australian electoral outcomes being fairly benign are the preferential voting system (as opposed to first past the post in the US) and compulsory elections - high voter turnout is generally recognised to prevent swings towards the extreme. In the US, 60% voter turnout is considered high, whereas here the turnout is generally north of 90%.

*By shtick, I mean his general 'oh, don't mind me, I'm just a funny old dodderer' demeanour, from which he can pivot in half a second flat to become really toxic and aggressive

I don't agree with that analysis of Hanson. Her political career has always been very focused on her as the sole figurehead. She does not have a good track record of sharing power with others and members of her party are heavily reliant on her endorsement for any kind of success. They can't run on her issues alone because specific issues aren't actually what get people to vote for her. They vote for Hanson because she is seen as a reliable culture warrior outside of the usual ruling political class. Her approach to politics actually has many similarities to Trump's.

Thank you for the common sense response. Even Barry from insiders has said that Bob katter is probably the most representative politician in the country. He truly is there representing his electorate. Love it or loath it, it's true.

Jacqui Lambie and Glenn Lazarus were ex Palmer United Party and both were sincere.

Oh, I thought we were talking about "bad people who shouldn't be anywhere near political levers", not "egotisitical idiots".