Nope - Tactical Ninja
Sep. 21st, 2014
07:17 am - Nope
In good times, people tend to vote left. In bad times, people tend to vote right. 49% of NZ just voted right.
Under MMP, this means a centre-right coalition will be formed and we'll get another 3 years of increasing inequality, increasing unemployment, and increasing national debt. I will be ok because I am in the demographic this government looks after.
But I didn't vote for this and I am utterly disgusted at what it says about the values of my fellow kiwis. And because it's about values, it's personal. Essentially, if you voted for this government we do not share enough values to sustain a friendship. Hardline maybe, but I am done with the unthinking, unfeeling majority (which, like Scotland, is barely a majority) being ok with a sociopathic forex trader shafting our country's vulnerable for the profit of his rich mates. I won't associate with that. I can't, not and live with myself.
If the former, interested in strategic & tactical discussions.
If the latter, we'll visit.
But yes, I want to keep working at improving NZ for the time I'm here, however long that is.
I am not interested in going into politics myself.
My respect has been restored somewhat by checking the results for the electorates in and around Wellington. Not one of them voted in a National candidate.
Which leads to the question - if the people living and working in the seat of government, who often work for the government and are closest to where policy decisions are made, don't want National representing them, what does that say about National as a government?
Unfortunately I see it going right everywhere; with the whole ISIS thing, people are easily convinced that the right can protect them better than the left. And they're prepared to give up more of their rights, too. I hate that this is happening.
Unless our liberal side convinces the public that they're a viable option compared to the conservatives, then our current govt will be back in in two years as well. And they're basically shitting all over all of us who aren't wealthy businesspeople.
My reading is a lot more than 49% of NZ voted right. Of the right-wing parties I would include National (47%), NZ First (6.5%), and the Conservatives (2.5%).
Indeed, given that these results are very similar to the elections of the previous six years, one is tempted to say the majority of NZ seems to have settled into being a centre-right country that seems comfortable with public asset sales, spying scandals and the like. As long as it all doesn't affect them, of course.
I suspect that National will change its leader in this coming term to create a pretense of "freshness" that will deliver them another election in 2017. It'll be 2020 before there's a chance of a Labour-Green government.
However, it's those that vote that count and you're right about that majority.
I didn't actually think Key would make it to this election, and I am sure you're right about him clearing off. He's done his job now. However, no government has lasted more than three terms in NZ in my lifetime, and since this government can no longer blame the previous government or the GFC without even its own supporters going "Bullshit" (such is kiwi culture) - and since they now think they have a mandate, they will likely trip themselves up in the next term.
Maybe I'm just an optimist, but I predict a change of government next time round, especially if Labour gets over its chickenshit and puts Grant Robertson in as leader.
A whole bunch of dodgy stories are cropping up about people double voting etc. and I'm not sure how much to believe.
Voter ID laws are a tool of conservatives to disenfranchise vulnerable members of the population, who historically tend to vote for more progressive parties and candidates. Stronger ID laws won't help raise voter turnout; they're more likely to lower it if anything.
The politicians are still struggling to make agreements and find a way to organize a government. I was hoping for the green party to become third, but they even lost voters compared to the last election. I don't understand how people are thinking anymore. Living conditions are so good in Sweden, one of the best compared to other countries, and still people continue to whine about how things are bad and how we should stop take on more refugees. A terrifying development in this little country.
The Nordic countries are about the only ones that have it better than NZ, and it's because the politics tend to be further to the left. I don't understand why this isn't plainly obvious to my fellow countryfolk.
We have some trouble with a right-winged party called AfD (Alternative für Deutschland)overhere. They of course claim not to be right-winged, but they are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_for_Germany
..and of course people started to vote for them in certain elections like crazy.
NZ is the land of "she'll be right", where nobody can be arsed being too extreme and we're too lazy to get out of the water as it slowly heats up.
But you guys use MMP!!! That's supposed to always guarantee that everyone gets exactly what they vote for!!! At least according to all the electoral reform zealots in Canada.
The "I didn't vote for this" is always heard here because we use FPTP, and so many of my fellow Canucks think that if we just changed voting systems, they'd never have to endure a gov't they didn't like every again. Which is not to say that I don't think we need electoral reform, I just find it odd that those on the left (because they're always keener about electoral reform) think it will mean an end to conservative/centre-right governments. I guess they just don't pay much attention to election outcomes in other countries...
Most of the governments since MMP came in in the 90s have been coalitions, which claim to keep governments honest but often involve bulldozing by the main partner.
I like MMP better than FPP because while it doesn't guarantee I'll always like the government, it does mean a vote in line with my values is no longer wasted.