Dr. Bradley Thayer

But limited attack options, to my mind, are going to be inferior to major attack options against the pillars of the regime.

The central problem facing Western democracies in terms of the health of their democracy is the legitimation crisis.

That is, the elites are uniparty or however you want to describe them.

They have the same core and they have the same approach and attitudes, ignoring their base, ignoring their populations.

And that legitimation crisis has to be resolved, because if it is not resolved, you're going to see the continuation of what we see in Europe, Canada, Britain, and even in Australia, that is increasingly authoritarian.

formerly democratic political governments and political parties.

So advance is one of a group which is fighting far above its weight in terms of advancing very specific principles, but focusing also on the nuts and bolts of elections so that the people and populist political parties

are going to not only understand the electoral process in every respect, but be able to actually win elections through very specific targeting of voters.

So the legitimation crisis is profound and it's affecting, of course, all Western democracies, but groups like ADVANCE and perhaps others are offering solutions about how a populist right can employ very specific mechanisms

to win elections.

And that's a welcome change from center-right Republican parties, which seem to welcome and embrace losing elections, but giving excellent concession speeches when they lose.

So advantage is focusing on actively the nuts and bolts of winning.

And therefore, in an extraordinary group,

And there's much to learn from it, Steve, in the States as well as around Western democracies.

Lockdowns in Australia were so draconian, they were only exceeded by China's, right?

It shows you how bad the lockdowns were.

At this conference, we have many veterans of that lockdown experience who suffer, who are persecuted because of everything.

The lesson from the lockdown for patriotic Australians was the government is only a half a step away from being hard authoritarian.

And additionally, individuals here see that as a dry run, essentially as a dress rehearsal for steps that the Australian government may take in the future.

So a hard authoritarianism that would rival China in many respects is possible really in any Western democracy.