When Donald Trump, his face taut with vindictive rage, made his late night appearance to claim victory in one breath and electoral fraud in the other, I felt extremely fortunate to be Australian.
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While our democracy is not wart-free, it is far more civilised than America's version.
For a start, it is inconceivable that a prime minister would claim victory before the votes were counted and then go on to threaten legal action to stop those votes being tallied.
And while we've had some clowns in the top job, I don't reckon any of them would have ever said words to the effect of "We were winning big but then they started counting the votes." That's essentially what Trump claimed, horrifying not only his political enemies but some key allies as well.
Now, things can get pretty rough in our politics, just ask Julia Gillard. But it's never quite descended to the nastiness that's characterised the Trump era, although it did come close in 2013.
Sure, there's a bit of unneccessary theatre around the dispatch box during Question Time. But by and large we're spared the incessant name calling, disparagement, bragging and insult-tossing we've seen in America these past four years. Nor have we been barraged by blatant lies and falsehoods on an almost daily basis.
In the US, a journalistic industry has grown up around fact checking statements made by Donald Trump. The number of falsehoods uttered by the president since 2016 runs into many thousands.
Yes, sure, our pollies do tell porkies from time to time but they look like angels compared to Donald Trump.
Can you imagine the PM claiming we were rounding the COVID corner when daily infection rates showed the opposite?
Can you imagine our voters swarming over gun shops, buying up hand guns and ammunition because they feared unrest after an election?
Can you imagine shopfronts being boarded up on election eve for the same reason?
No, it's all quite unfathomable.
Our politics might be a little dull at times, our political leaders only slightly more charismatic than umbrella stands. But that is a whole lot better than enduring four years of a malevolent circus devoid of decency and fuelled by bigotry and intolerance.
We have many things to be thankful for in this country, not least our functioning democracy.
