BEN HARVEY: If Donald Trump wins the US election, the left has itself to blame. Here’s some free advice

Political opinion polls are so ropey at the moment it’s impossible to gauge who will move into the White House.

If Donald Trump does get up, you can be sure that some journalists will say it’s a failure of democracy.

Poppycock.

A Trump presidency will not be a failure of democracy; it will be a product of democracy.

And democracy is a product of mathematics.

It won’t be simple mathematics because of the thoroughly confusing American electoral college (Google it if you dare) but the arithmetic won’t lie.

If the numbers go Trump’s way, the left needs to have a hard look at itself because if you are outwitted by a porn star-shagging bankrupted convicted felon then something is very wrong with your message.

Your tactics clearly need to be tweaked.

Here’s a bit of free advice to the progressives: slow down and stop yelling at us.

By slow down I mean come back closer to the mainstream.

Just a little.

I understand that progressives need to be ahead of the pack.

To force social evolution they need to do things that jolt the sensibilities of the often intransigent middle class.

They need to put out ideas that make the rest of us feel a little uncomfortable and force us to, if not walk a mile in another person’s shoes, at least think about trying the shoes on.

The progressives who drove sexual and racial equality last century achieved their aims by pushing and prodding mainstream populations over a period of several decades.

Today’s social agitators — those champions of refugee welfare, neurodivergence, gender politics and climate action — don’t have that patience.

They moved forward so fast they lost any connection with the mainstream they sought to convert.

And when the mainstream didn’t immediately accept what cultural warriors deemed “absolute truths” the progressives started yelling.

Social progress takes time. Progressives need to get their head around that.

Twenty years ago the spectacle of gay marriage was preposterous. Today the idea has widespread support and in another 20 years it won’t be referred to as “gay” marriage, just marriage.

It is expecting far too much for society — in the space of just two generations — to be at peace with not just L,G and B but also T, I,Q,A and +.

We hadn’t even heard about T, I Q, A and + up until a few years ago.

Can we please catch our breath while we get our heads around the idea that men can have babies and women can have penises?

And can you please stop calling us names while we do that?

Because if you don’t slow down and stop yelling you know what you get?

Trump.

People don’t like being yelled at, especially when they’re out of breath.

UPGRADE POLITICIAN PAY

Politicians shouldn’t have to request upgrades to business class because they should be travelling at the pointy end as a matter of course.

Do we really want our MPs attending to official affairs of state with Karen from Cronulla peering over their shoulder at the laptop?

Until we start treating and paying politicians like proper important people (perhaps we will when they act like proper important people) then I guess they will have to rely on the kindness of airline executives.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a politician accepting an upgrade to business class.

There is a lot wrong with them soliciting an upgrade, especially if they’re the Federal transport minister, as Anthony Albanese was at the time he was apparently trying to get to the pointy end of the Qantas plane.

Accepting versus soliciting might be considered a matter of semantics by the Prime Minister’s supporters but it’s an important distinction.

Proactively asking for an upgrade creates a power imbalance in a relationship.

Alan Joyce wasn’t giving away $10,000 seats for free because he was worried about politicians getting deep vein thrombosis.

Albanese’s learning the hard way that the cover-up is always worse than the crime.

Our PM is exposed at the moment for two reasons.

First, his denial of impropriety didn’t sound at all convincing. He will never be our most coherent leader but his word salad response to pretty simple questions this week was appalling.

Second, and more importantly, because under his watch Qantas has been done some pretty big favours by the Federal Government — principally the denial to rival airline Qatar of access to Australian domestic routes.

Qantas was protected from foreign competition by politicians who had their noses in the well-stocked trough in the Chairman’s Lounge.

It smells.

Nobody with half a brain believes Qatar was cock-blocked because MPs were enjoying fancy fizz on the red roo but those freebie upgrades certainly didn’t do the national carrier any harm in the lobbying war with Doha.