Arthur
Here it is, the election result that no one on The BFD wanted, well except for an occasionally appearing commenter who seems to have an inexplicable adoration for Labour and its leader. Ah well, diversity makes us stronger right? Cue the gnashing of teeth, wailing rivers of tears from disappointment and/or frustration at another three years of left-wing blundering, bizarre policies if they can actually produce one, lofty posturing and wittering, reduction in freedoms of speech and rights, more Maori separatism, roads reduced and clogged for a hundred or so cyclists, more hippy commune thinking and further attacks on the few productive sectors of the economy such as farming. Then there is the ongoing sell-out to globalist communism.
Of course, thinking that National might prevail was very optimistic. The polls said it wouldn’t happen and they were right and even, in hindsight, seemed optimistic about National’s chances when on the night they were routed.
It seems several things happened. National, in abandoning their more traditional right of centre position, bled votes to ACT. Swinging voters when faced with a blue wet lefty party or a red one chose red and stayed with the status quo. It would also seem that National’s complete lack of cohesiveness undid them. This can be summed up as an ossified executive that materialised itself to all by doggedly sticking with Bridges when it was obvious he was a no go, the promotion of Muller to leader who seemed as much leadership material as Dan the Vicarage gardener, and treacherous MPs who would rather sink the ship in bouts of vengeance and bitter vetch than win.
The emergence of Collins as the leader was too little too late, like starting the pumps on the Titanic when the water was flooding over the decks rather than right after the 2017 iceberg.
There was another factor against National regardless of all of the above. No government has been one term in the last 60 years except for Labour 1972-75. In fact since MMP came in part way through National’s 1990-99 three term stint, all governments have been there for three terms.
On the other side, we have Labour who increased their share. Some might say they got votes from lefties who were scared of the Greens being in power yet the Green vote held so it didn’t come from there so they must have been swinging voters. Labour can now govern alone but nasty noises are emerging from the likes of Andrew Little that they want “their friends” with them. Those who voted Labour to keep the Commie Greens out will feel rightly betrayed if that happens.
There is also another trend becoming obvious although it has been growing like a noxious weed for ages; the election dominance of out of touch urban elites. These come in a few forms and I generously generalise:
- The wealthy virtue signallers who live divorced from the dirty sway of the real world. They pass through the reality of the real world in European SUVs that dwarf a World War 2 Panzer Three and have a similar disdain for the people they pass as the occupiers of those Panzers did.
- The ‘do the right thing’ soy latte sucker set who drink craft beer and feel worldly and think veganism is next to godliness. The women quite often have hedge clipper haircuts and beards and man-buns often predominate on what passes for men.
- The new breed resulting from the socialist soaked education system. The brainwashed Millennials and the single-issue social justice warrior (yeah right, as warrior as a stale biscuit) set.
This disconnect explains things like activist Swarbrick’s popularity in middle Auckland. Many of these delusional city dwellers think they live in a vacuum and are not dependent on nasty nuts and bolts stuff like farming, industry, the economy, trade, oil and gas etc. You know, nasty stuff they blithely write off with two-dimensional slogans like ‘sunset industries’. Of course, they can only witter and generalise about theoretical ‘sunrise’ industries and spout slogans about ‘alternative energy’ that does not exist in abundance, cannot meet demand and sometimes is unrealised technology. Never mind, they say in so many words, we can trash what exists now and can wait for the warp drive etc to come later.
So folks, there we have it. Another three years minimum of vacuous empty noise from Ardern, and Andrew Little sweeping our democratic freedoms into the dustbin. An economically incompetent Labour caucus and the strong likelihood of the Greens being included and putting more salvoes of torpedoes into the economy of the country and our savings. Now watch with fear and loathing for the spin and push for the ‘wealth tax’ and other vile Stalinist garbage to share the misery equally.
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