Well, Victorians better get ready for their dear leader to immortalise himself in bronze. Once a Premier has served (ruled?) for 3,000 days they are entitled to erect a statue of themselves near Parliament House.

It seems likely that Daniel Andrews will join John Cain, Rupert Hamer, Henry Bolte, and Albert Dunstan. All he has to do is make it to the end of February 2023.

For anyone that values civil liberty, human rights, and economic prosperity – it’s been a disappointing (but not unexpected) night south of the border. The election results were called reasonably early by most networks, although it was still unclear last night whether it would be a minority or majority government for Labor.

When it came time to give his victory speech, the re-elected Premier might as well have smacked citizens across the face after he fist-pumped the air and declared, ‘Vaccines work!’

I’m sure that comment will age well.

Victorians failed to punish the Labor Party and so, as feared, Andrews has taken the result as an endorsement of his behaviour during Covid, proving that civilisation never learns.

‘We had to make some very difficult decisions, some very tough decisions, and Victorian families and businesses right across our state have had a very difficult time.’

That’s pretty easy for the Premier to say – he didn’t lose a cent during the pandemic. The sacrifices were made by other people – people who don’t tend to vote Labor.

‘Victorians stuck together … we went out and got vaccinated. Because vaccines work.’

He left out the part where his government mandated vaccines for nearly every industry and deliberately locked those who resisted out of the economy for long stretches of time – threatening them in daily press conferences and turning them into figures of public abuse. It was a truly hideous example of medical coercion that Labor should be ashamed of.

Usually, a Premier whose state becomes an international example of police brutality, lockdown madness, and dictatorial overreach wouldn’t win an election.

But this is Victoria.

Stockholm Syndrome has been trending on social media all afternoon, as the other states mock Victorians and their perplexing love of the Big State Daddy. We can only conclude that Daniel Andrews remains popular for the same reason as Chairman Mao – there is no Opposition.

There’s also a niggling suspicion from observers that a large percentage of Victorians like the Andrews brand of authoritarianism. While some took to the streets to defend liberty, millions were happy to dob-in their neighbours and act as an extension of the Police – getting a real moral ‘kick’ out of intimidating their neighbours.

If Victorians were that bad during Covid, frothing at the mouth to act ‘for the greater good’ – imagine the sort of nightmare Victoria will descend into once Andrews tells everyone to police ‘carbon’ use in order to ‘save the planet’.

Nothing is settled yet but it appears Victoria is following the global trend of Western nations to radicalise. Red seats are turning Green and Blue seats are fighting off the Teals.

That’s what happens when you take three generations of children and train them to be unquestioning eco-socialists with no economic responsibility. In Victoria, the money ran out a long time ago. The debt is so large that it has faded into irrelevancy to most voters.

Former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett was surprised by the high Green turnout.

‘For them to be getting 15 per cent in seats away from their own area if these figures hold up … those preferences will go to the Labor Party and you might find a very strong result for the government, sadly.’

As for the rise of the Greens, it’s hard to imagine anyone is voting for them after reading their policy layout. Most people who vote Green appear to have done so ‘to save the planet’ without reading any of the fine print. That is the privilege of inner-city voters. Vote Green and don’t worry about where the food and energy comes from. That’s a peasant problem.

It’s pointless fighting against the grain on this one. Victorians are obviously happy to follow Andrews into the abyss.

The people of Victoria weren’t even prepared to punish Andrews in his home seat after the SlugGate scandal. If that doesn’t unseat a Premier, nothing will. He’s obtained some kind of god-like status where all the failings of his regime (and there are many) are shrugged off by a devout flock of worshippers who mistakenly believe that Andrews is some kind of Covid Messiah that ‘kept them safe’ with cruelty.

The rest? Well, after being made poor by the forced closure of their businesses – what do Victoria’s employers have to look forward to? A cost of living crisis? Unpayable energy bills? Biosecurity legislation that could see their business trashed without notice? Many have simply given up and joined the hand-out line, succumbing to socialism’s worst instinct to embrace their State abuser.

Whether it’s a majority or a minority government – it certainly won’t be a Liberal victory. Shadow Health minister Georgie Crozier called the night ‘incredibly disappointing’.

We could say the same thing about the last three years of Liberal Opposition, who spent the vast majority of that time acting as a cheer squad for the government.

‘As others have said, we have to take on board this and learn from it and, you know, get back on that horse and show we are a viable alternative,’ Crozier added. ‘We’ve worked hard. We had what I felt like was a very strong message but, clearly, the Victorian public haven’t taken that.’

But what lessons will the Liberals learn? That it’s time to go full climate cult and pave the streets with solar panels?

Daniel Andrews’ text message fear campaign featuring texts like, ‘Matthew Guy has a plan for cuts. I need your help to stop the Liberals’ and ‘Don’t risk Matthew Guy, the Liberals’ Cuts Guy. He was sacked. He’ll cut the Big Build. He cut health, waged war on ambos & closed TAFEs’ formed a cheap (but effective) way for Andrews to hide his government’s enormous failures. Who caused health workers to be sacked? Daniel Andrews and his health mandates. Whose budgets are blowing out on construction projects? Daniel Andrews. Why is education slipping off the global standard? Daniel Andrews and his Woke teachers.

It’s easy to fight back, but Matthew Guy didn’t. On Saturday, Danistan was reborn.