From the New York Time, “Australia is now a nation where, according to an opinion poll from last year, 49 percent support a ban on Muslim immigration, a result so shocking the pollsters did it twice before releasing it. A similar poll the previous year had that figure at 28 percent. Even allowing for the vagaries of polling data, those results signal a remarkable change in a short period.
“I understand the difficulty of Mr. Turnbull’s position. But the reaction here to Mr. Trump represents the resurgence of our worst instincts. We’re doomed if, in the face of this flirtation, the best we can muster is silence.”