The night MMP couldn't save us from ourselves
By CHRIS TROTTER
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Well, the New Zealand Left has woken up to its very own 9/11.
Last night's result represents not just a slap in the face for Helen Clark and her Labour-led government, it sets the seal on the political values of a whole generation.
Clark and her colleagues stood for all that was good about the baby-boomer generation: its idealism and its 40-year refusal to bow down to the reactionary values of an uptight, male-dominated society driven by a dangerous determination to discipline and punish.
That's what triumphed last night: the hunger to punish - and a crippling fear of social change.
And, like most things in this world, it's happened before.
The New Zealand electorate doesn't often behave selfishly or stupidly. In fact, apart from last night, I can recall only one other occasion when it has done so - 1975.
In every other election I can remember, the New Zealand electorate has demonstrated an acute grasp of what was necessary politically. They didn't always get it, but that was because of the way the first-past-the-post electoral system worked to frustrate the will of the majority. Had the popular vote been reflected in the composition of its parliaments, New Zealand would have had a very different post-war history.
Even in the 1975 election "Rob's Mob" did not achieve a majority of the popular vote. Had MMP been in place 33 years ago, Bill Rowling would have continued to be prime minister of New Zealand at the head of a Labour-Social Credit-Values coalition government. Nevertheless, with 47.6% of the popular vote, National came very close in 1975.
Thirty-three years ago the feral nature of Muldoon's support was discernible everywhere. You could see, as well as sense, the curious social chemistry that was fusing the interests of lanky Young Nats with tousled locks, smart pullovers and slacks, with grizzled old working-class battlers in oil-stained overalls. They wanted no part of Bill Rowling's "New Society" - in fact it scared them to death.
Thirty-three years on, that same queer chemistry is again in evidence. You can smell it on the blogosphere, as rank and rangy as a young man's student flat. You can read it on the pages of the right-wing media: the smug certainties of our genteel suburban fascisti - regurgitated to order by publications long-used to dripping the oleaginous phraseology of "responsible journalism" all over the jagged edges of their readers' class-advantage.
And it's been there for all of us to absorb in the polls - though many of us simply refused to believe our fellow citizens could be so dumb - or so mean.
But, we were wrong. They were.
Looking at the result, you realise just how much this country and its people have changed. So much so that, last night not even our proportional system of electoral representation could rescue us from ourselves.
So, what was it in the end? What led a majority of the New Zealand electorate to reject a government that has not only done it no great harm (as National-led governments are historically prone to do), but might even be said to have done it some good? Why did voters reject a prime minister with nine years of hard-won experience in government, for a chap who's barely spent six years in parliament?
Last night's result was manufactured out of the besetting sin of the last 150 years of western history - the crisis of masculinity. What, exactly, is a man in a world of corporate and public bureaucracies? A world of tin-pot bosses, impossible schedules, and unrealistic expectations? A world where to show your feelings is to reveal your weakness? A world where girls can do anything, but boys make a virtue out of boorish stupidity? A world where cynicism trumps heroism, and where simple human decency is dismissed as political correctness?
It was these: the men who just couldn't cope with the idea of being led by an intelligent, idealistic, free-spirited woman; the gutless, witless, passionless creatures of the barbecue-pit and the sports bar (and the feckless females who put up with them); who voted Helen Clark out of office.
John Key - you're welcome to them.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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In response to #198:
Your idealism is clouding the facts and shows your ignorance. This is not what you wanted but it is what NZ wanted because this is what NZ voted for. Even Mr Trotter cannot argue against this.
National did not get a clear majority (i.e >50% of the votes) this election. However, it is the most significant majority (albeit not a clear majority) since MMP was introduced. Not since the 1950's has a party had an actual clear majority. Do not argue that you cannot "rally behind" this new government because it is not a majority when you can "rally behind" a minority Labour party when it suits you.
While I am disappointed with the outcome of the election I am even more disappointed in people's responses, such as Mr Trotter and many of the "posters".
The declaration of human rights insists upon free and fair elections where every voter is entitled to express his political will. Chris, surely you are not suggesting that over 60% of the electorate is wrong, there can be no wrong result in such an election.
I am an ex Wellintonian so I read the Dominion often but I have never read so much TRIPE in my life.
check out this link to another of Chris' articles when he wasn't in love with Labour. Just what does this guy stand for except to highlight to those who do their homework that he has no beliefs other than writing controversy for capitalist gain. Do you get your kicks by winding up people with big words or were you one of those intellectuals calling John Key a "rich prick" a few days before the election? Big words and controversy does not make you a good journalist, reasoned factual comments may be a start.
The 'moronic fool' in this scenario is clearly Trotter.
What we saw was a response to Helen's authoritarian behaviour. A record vote for National on Saturday, and I strongly suspect many people voted for Key (myself included) to rid ourselves of the socialist "i'll take care of you all" agenda.
Stand on your own two feet sir. You disgust me.
To others that have a similar view to this beggar, save. Invest. USE the financial crisis to bleed as much revenue as possible, be the one that gets their money from another's misfortune or foolish decisions. We are not "equal" in society. It's never occured in the history of mankind, it's a f**king pipedream. Be the architect of your own fate.
Keep writing Mr Trotter, I like your work. Saturday was an easy win for the men in suits.
LOL. The comments following the journos column are the sanest and wittiest parts of this page.
Trotter out!! The people have spoken AGAIN! ;-)
I agree Chris - people voted out of a selfish desire for more tax-cuts. It's as simple as that. What saddens me most is how the working class vote National, expecting that the tax-cut largesse will benefit them too. Where do they think the money for tax-cuts comes from? It comes from more user-charges for health and education, and a 'you're on your own mate' attitude to those in desperate need.
As for the 'Nanny state' - everyone is behaving like children at a lolly scramble - just interested in more for them, so what do you expect? Helen was a much better prime-minister than Tony Blair - at least she stuck to her principles some of the time and wasn't seduced by wealth and privilege.
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Chris Trotter I just linked into this from Poneke's Blog. Your piece made me cry. I didn't think people could be so stupid either.
(Well actually I did but I quickly shook off that fear in that people would finally see the misleading campaign Key/Nact was running, the behind the scenes venom from the NZBusiness Roundtable and the breathtaking talk up of Hollow Man Key and the 9-year continuation of nastiness towards Clark in the papers, talk back and the breakfast shows: I was wrong.)
I personally experienced the nastiness of the right in my blue rinse electorate when helping out this year for the first time with hoardings and such because I realised how close we were to losing a way of life I wanted for my children in my country.
I knew that there was a huge pool of misogyny out there judging by the venom on the Kiwiblog, Colin Espiner and other sites. The thing most worrying was the female vote for Key. They seem to think the war to be treated like equal human beings is over.
Women are still being killed by men who think they own women.
Young 14 year old girls are going into what they somehow think are equal relationships but quickly finding out if they don't do as they're told they suffer physically, mentally and sexually.
Keep up the good work you are doing in saying what needs to be said in the next 3 years. There is nothing remotely real about the new Government.
Meanwhile, we can happily say that Clark, Cullen and Co have won a fourth term. There are huge changes to society from their time in Government. The current changes like working for families is going to stay.
Any changes to Kiwisaver and Super and any lack of real improvements to public transport (Kiwirail)will start people wondering and I for one will be reminding them that Act/Nat only promised to retain our assets for one term. Any attempts to reverse social changes will be fought against.