So disappointed right now. Mostly at Labour’s stupidity. I just want to vote for a left wing party, all right? But do I want to vote for a stupid one? No I bloody well don’t. And Labour is so stupid these days, I can’t. And there’s no clear alternative.
Why do I want a left wing government? Easy. The left cares about people and doesn’t wage the politics of fear-mongering and by the extension of punishments.
The left has historically made things better for most people. The right – and National here totally fits this mould – has always made things better for the rich. With the dramatic rise of inequality in New Zealand after three terms of National, most New Zealanders desperately need a change of government.
I’ve been refraining from writing any Lefter columns over the last few months, as we head towards a September election, because I know people in Labour are very sensitive about any criticism. The attitude seems to be ‘Just for God’s sake let us get into power and then everything will be all right’.
But I simply can’t believe that. And believe me, I’ve tried to believe that.
Apart from Labour being too scared to admit it’s actually left wing, to the point where it’s actually not, Labour is being led by a bloke who honestly thinks people like him despite the clear and growing evidence that almost all people don’t. Little still thinks he’s a viable leader despite the polls telling him the exact opposite. For God’s sake, Andrew, your potential voters prefer your deputy to you, and she has never even expressed any interest in being the damn Prime Minister! People in the street tell you they are happy with you? Duh. I can hardly contain myself. They’re probably National voters, you fool.
If you can delude yourself so profoundly, what are you going to do to us? Oh, the stupidity! For example, Labour’s tax stance.
OK, here’s how it’s played: National will win, and I don’t want that, but at least lots of people might get a little tax cut which gives them more discretionary spending … then Labour announces it will not do a tax cut and put more money into Working For Families.
Right, so you may have got some more money, say $80 a month, from tax cuts, but under Labour, you’d get maybe $100, if you do the paperwork properly, or if someone else does it for you … yeah, right, which one do you prefer? Which one do you trust? Money you just get, or maybe some money that someone else has to organise for you or that you have to jump through hoops for? There are already thousands and thousands of New Zealanders missing out on various benefits because they don’t know what they’re entitled to, how to apply for it and because staff, after years of neoliberalism, don’t help and don’t care about the right people getting what they’re due. This amounts to a tacit method by which this government saves money.
So:
Thanks, Labour, for not having the vision to define your political stance, despite the very clear evidence that people are crying out for the left to define its stance, with the pretty compelling examples being the popular rise of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn in the US and UK respectively. (And how many goddamn years have I been writing and saying this??)
Thanks, Labour, for making an ‘alliance’ with the Greens that expires on election day. How cynical is that?
Thanks, Labour, for not even having enough vision to realise that you and your ‘leader’ don’t have any vision.
Thanks, Labour, for still imagining Labour’s more successful past has any bearing whatsoever on the position you now find yourselves in.
Thanks, Labour, for putting Jacinda Adern in a position where she no longer has her own voice while, worse, tarring her with your loser-brush. Because when Labour crashes and burns in this forthcoming election, this will blight her career, and Grant Robertson’s career, and a few others, because thanks to Labour’s lack of process and management, they had to pretend they supported you.
Thanks, Labour, for letting a stinking rich liberal like Gareth Morgan actually start looking like a viable option to some who would otherwise have been easy Labour votes.
Thanks, Labour, for letting the Greens take the left ground, because Meteria Turei actually made a leftist stand while you waffle on with tiny tweaks to this and that.
Thanks, Labour, for letting perhaps the dullest politician in New Zealand history, a conservative, Catholic, anti-abortion farmer who has never been a popular choice as a Prime Minister still get enough oxygen to easily coast in. It’s National’s election to lose, but Labour’s dicking around means National will win despite years of bad government.
And finally, worst of all, thanks, Labour, for foisting another National government on this poor, suffering, badly-managed country.
What you have effectively done is you have made decent people pay the price of three more years of rising inequality and extortionate house prices as the only possible way to get rid of this uber-deluded Andrew Little which might finally – finally! – force Labour put its house in order. Because Labour has been increasingly too damned moribund and stupid to do this since it lost Helen Clark.
Thanks so much.