The Donald makes even old Lizzie look appealing

I tuned into the ABC News channel as usual yesterday after getting home from a lunch appointment which had terminated at the Duke Hotel on Enmore Road - lots of odd characters there, I'll tell you, enough for an episode of a sitcom at least - and later after the sun had gone down I sat on the couch to watch Bill Shorten gab away about a Republic. I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with the sentiments involved in this particular debate, I should hasten to say, so it was entertaining for me to listen to this statesman fill in the gaps with his own knowledge.

A new perspective, and about time, I hear you say. And I agree. We need to have our own, native, head of state. Enough of these old notables the administration wheels out to do the honours and that sort of thing. We need someone who can truly embody who we are as a people, as a nation. Someone whose story says something about Australia in a way that Lizzie's family history fails to do. Someone who can exist on the lofty plains of our collective ambition for ourselves. Someone wholesome and interesting and talented and wise. God knows it can't be hard to find someone who ticks all the boxes when the alternative is Chuckie, that sorry old codger with his cracked notions and untold inherited wealth.

But then you see how they have arranged things in America. This is the sticking point for me. When Donald Trump was elected a lot of people stateside, it is true, started thinking seriously about migrating to Canada (or Australia). But things have just gotten worse and worse. Every day, it seems, there is some new piece of news that merely serves to illustrate the foolishness of the American president. And he can't even get any legislation through Congress. It's a sham.

So in the light of things that are happening in Washington DC old Chuck is even starting to look appealing. Many might say that we should wait until mum Liz has moved on to make way for her goofy son, or until she has kicked the bucket, before becoming a republic, but the process in a legal sense can take a bit of time. We'll have to see what the people of Australia do when the next federal election comes around because the Opposition have made organising a referendum on the republic party policy. Who knows how things will turn out. Will we end up with a complete deadbeat like Trump or will the people decide to stick with the Coalition in order to keep the Queen as head of state?