Not So Much ‘Annihilated’, Just Delayed
Kicking the can down the road is a time-honoured political strategy in New Zealand. What’s more, it usually works. Right up to the point where the politicians finally run out of road.
Chris Trotter
Known principally for his political commentaries in The Dominion Post, The ODT, The Press and the late, lamented Independent, and for "No Left Turn", his 2007 history of the Left/Right struggle in NZ.
Can’t Make It There Anymore
Trump’s tariffs are his way of saying to the world: We are strong enough. We can make it here. Donald Trump’s tariffs have stopped globalisation in its tracks.
Stop and Search
Tamatha Paul should investigate the consequences of what happened to her party’s electoral support in 2017 – the last time a young(ish) wahine Māori gave Green voters cause to doubt her party’s attachment to the rule of law.
This Won’t Work
Why challenging Donald Trump’s executive authority in the courts is unlikely to end happily.
The Ebb and Flow
The War on Woke in the United States, and here in New Zealand, is starting to get tricky.
Trump and the US Gravitational Pull
A determined American president does not need to retreat before the angry objections of globalisation’s defenders: not when he commands the economic and military resources of the world’s most powerful nation state.
These Are Just Impossible Things
The collective memory of the average Kiwi voter warns them that although the promise of a good life for everybody sounds wonderful, the Greens would never entrust the ordinary people of New Zealand with the power to make it happen – and neither would their bosses.
Making Sense of King Donald
Kings, dictators and populist presidents don’t look at the world that way.
Can the Woke Left-Wing Leopards Change Their Spots?
This is Chris Hipkins’ toughest challenge: to persuade the voters that his left-wing leopards have, indeed, become conventionally gendered, non-woke pussy cats.
A Better Idea
Donald Trump’s instinct is to relocate the inhabitants, flatten what’s left and build the sort of city that people from all around the world would want to inhabit.
Having a Chat Over Coffee
The SUP would rather keep control of the losing side, than lose control of the winning side. Labour’s exactly the same.
Which Sort of People?
Only a populist leader can be trusted to give them what they want – which is, usually, to blow the system up.
Fascism in the USA? Not Even Close
Only a rejuvenated and aggressive left, with the working class behind it, could secure the triumph of fascism in America – and no such left exists.
On Writing to the King
Such comments reveal just how frayed the bonds of constitutional loyalty have become and how little stock the opposition parties now put in the democratic norms of representative government.
How They Set the Pattern
Māori and their left-wing allies are both well aware that when the key institutions of the state are in your hands, guns are an unwelcome distraction.