Around Australia in places of influence Senator Pauline Hanson is depicted as a gaffe-prone, embarrassing, right-wing extremist and a danger to Australia’s social cohesion and economic prosperity.

Her followers are, to use Hillary Clinton’s description of Donald Trump supporters, a ‘basket of deplorables’ or, as CNN preferred, ‘people who don’t have all their faculties and in some cases their elevator may not hit all floors’.

Notwithstanding, Hanson’s One Nation party leads in most polls on primary intentions, a reality which is striking panic into the hearts and minds of the left’s influencers.

Behind this panicked cohort is a growing network of well-funded, well-organised, left-wing extremists who seek to dictate what their fellow Australians are, and are not, allowed to believe. They orchestrate hate campaigns against their political enemies and, in particular, indoctrinate naive hearts and minds in schools and universities. The National Union of Students and the teachers’ unions cynically collaborate to encourage thousands of university and too-young-to-vote students across the country to skip class and, to chant, ‘Say no to Hanson’.

And while political leaders, public service bosses, academics, corporate grifters and the mainstream media may publicly sneer at One Nation, they actually see it as a near and present danger.

After all, if elected, One Nation threatens to cut $90 billion in government spending through the abolition of key federal bodies like the National Indigenous Australians Agency, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and the e-Safety Commission, and the withdrawal of ABC taxpayer funding. It has pledged to scrap net zero targets, to quit the Paris Agreement and to withdraw from the United Nations refugee convention.

If that’s not enough, it will push for competitive federalism by eliminating federal/state duplication. Agencies like the Australian Electoral Commission, the Bureau of Meteorology, the CSIRO, the Fair Work Commission and the Human Rights Commission worry about One Nation’s scrutiny.

In his book How the Liberal Mob Ruined  Science, Journalism and Hollywood, Derek Hunter argues, ‘There are three institutions in American life run by gatekeepers who have stopped letting in anyone who questions their liberal script: academia, journalism and pop culture…. They give their most political members awards and then say the awards make their liberal beliefs true. Worse they are using that consensus to pull the country even further to the left, by bullying and silencing dissent from even those they’ve allowed in’. That trinity is at work in Australia and now considers One Nation its greatest threat.

At heart, those three institutions are Marxian and their ultimate objective is the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat. Cloaking their goals under the pretence of social justice, they distort Australian history and hide the extreme wealth inequality, lack of social justice, limited personal mobility and misery which are the hallmarks of all Marxist societies.

Australians are now getting a taste of this brave new world. If you’re a CFMEU leader, a renewable energy tsar, an NDIS care provider or Chris Bowen’s travel agent, life is good. But if you aren’t a member of that privileged oligarchy and are struggling to feed small children a wholesome diet and have been shivering through winter, your world is very different. As state dependents, you must do as you’re told.

But then, having been raised in a benign environment and indoctrinated since childhood to believe their heritage is based on white supremacy and that capitalism is the root of all evil, today’s young are ready to reject the freedoms they have enjoyed from birth in favour of a promised welfare paradise.

Such righteousness has allowed the left to demonstrate its utter contempt for the democratic process. Notwithstanding 60 per cent of their constituents rejected the socially divisive ‘Voice to Parliament’ referendum, two Labor states established one anyway.

And left-wing violence is being normalised through friendly media like the ABC which aired the segment of a programme calling for a major One Nation financial backer to be sodomised and tortured in a manner that would kill her. It airs Hasan Piker who believes, ‘It doesn’t matter if rape happened on October 7th’.

Meanwhile, One Nation seems the only political party unambiguously arguing for free market principles and Western civilisation. Rather, the Coalition appears intent on taking a leaf out of the British Conservative’s anti-Reform-party playbook, asserting it will make no pact with One Nation either before or after the next election. By seeing One Nation, rather than Labor, as the enemy it appears more content remaining in opposition.

This must be music to the left’s ears. Years spent infiltrating the Liberal party are paying off. The latest outburst by Senator Andrew Bragg demonstrates an exploitable split within conservative ranks and supports a broad perception that the opposition is simply Labor-lite.

Indeed, since Prime Minister Tony Abbott was deposed by Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal party appears to have had a death wish. It seemed to accept the era of free market capitalism had ended. It signed the Paris climate agreement, instantly choosing emissions reduction over economic growth. It supported the brutality of Covid lockdowns and the persecution of those who refused to conform. It oversaw the rundown of defence expenditure and the woke capture of the military.

Rather than a consistent policy position, the Liberal party seems swayed by a social media echo chamber without realising that this adds to its Labor-lite brand.

The Liberals must understand that with sound financial backing and support in the polls, Pauline Hanson is sure to attract excellent candidates in time for the forthcoming state and federal elections.

And while One Nation still needs better internal discipline and policy development refinement in areas like immigration and finance, it should look more professional and ready for government than at any previous election.

For those who embrace Western democratic principles, it’s time to accept hard truths. If the centre-right parties can’t work together and Labor is re-elected, there may be no second chance.