Kindness can win

There’s something hopeful that just came out of American politics that deserves our attention in Australia. It goes beyond Trump losing ground or Elon Musk pouring money into losing campaigns. It’s about the kind of politics people are willing to embrace. Politics with kindness at its heart. Politics that treats looking after each other as a strength. Politics that refuses to accept that winning requires nastiness, scapegoating or surrender to wealthy interests.

James Talarico, the Christian politician elected to the US Senate from Texas, offers a powerful example. His message of loving your neighbour extends to people who look different, pray different and vote different. And he explicitly connects that principle with challenging the concentration of wealth and power. His message also involves practical action. In his victory speech, Talarico described campaign volunteers delivering water, donating school supplies and collecting groceries for struggling families. People experienced what caring for their neighbours can look like through the campaign itself.

In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed brought together similar affection for all the communities that welcomed him, as well as healthcare for all and a determination to reduce the influence of money in politics. New York’s Zohran Mamdani also offers an example: a politician whose warmth and everyday engagement with people has become a distinctive part of his appeal.

These are different people, campaigning in different places. And of course, their successes can’t be reduced to a single explanation. But together they challenge the bleak and almost implicit assumption that we see in Australia that decency and kindness are an electoral liability. And they also give us reason to question what we have allowed to be labelled radical.

Healthcare when you are sick. A safe home when you have nowhere to sleep. Enough food for your children. A decent education. Support when disability, illness or bad luck makes life harder. These things are human decency. Calling them “radical” or “socialist” does nothing to answer the real questions: how do we provide them well, fund them fairly and make sure everyone can access them?

There’s plenty of room to debate policy. But we shouldn’t have to apologise for believing that a wealthy society like Australia should look after its people and environment. Nor should we confuse kindness with weakness. Kindness requires confronting powerful interests. It can mean standing beside those being vilified, challenging a profitable injustice or demanding that our government spend public money in the public interest. Its credibility also depends on what follows: budgets, services, decisions and accountability. Warm words are worth little to someone who still can’t afford treatment or find somewhere safe to sleep.

The money matters too. Musk spent US$445 million on federal races, yet nearly all of the candidates he backed lost. That doesn’t mean wealth has ceased to distort democracy. The Democrats also received billionaire support. And it’s happening here in Australia too. But it does show that extraordinary spending doesn’t guarantee public consent. And that’s a reason for Aussies to participate rather than despair.

For those of us who oppose Pauline Hanson’s politics of hate and division and worry about the influence of billionaires such as Gina Rinehart, the challenge is to build movements where people are welcome and want to join. Something hopeful, practical and grounded in their lives.

We can take housing anxiety seriously while refusing to blame migrants. We can respond to economic insecurity without turning neighbours into enemies. We can oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza without being anti-semitic. We can defend First Nations rights and reject racism while building a shared commitment to everyone’s dignity.

Rejecting injustice belongs in that work. But there is a challenge here for the Greens and the broader left here too. Because advocating caring policies needs to go hand in hand with treating people kindly. When disagreement is met with contempt, labelling or exclusion, we undermine the solidarity and authenticity we claim to be building.

We can challenge harmful ideas firmly while listening, showing warmth and allowing people room to learn and change. The kindness we want built into our institutions should also be felt in our relationships. That includes keeping an open door for people who think or vote differently. Nobody should have to pass a test of political purity before helping to be part of a fairer community.

America’s latest examples offer encouragement, not a guarantee. Kindness needs organisation. It needs people having conversations, volunteering, supporting community groups, turning up and holding elected representatives to their promises between elections.

That’s how we give it political force.

In Australia, we can have faith in our capacity to care for each other, and act on it. We can refuse the invitation to hate our neighbours. We can expect more from those seeking our votes. Kindness can win.