How difficult is it to secure a landslide win in an election? Well, it’s a bit like baking a cake. If you follow the instructions and add all the ingredients there is every chance what emerges from the oven will be a triumph. Leave out the baking powder and the cake will be a flop. In a political sense there are similarities leading to the risk of an election flop. Politically the right, historically, are better bakers than the left.
In politics the instructions come from the voters and what they want make up the ingredients. These people, who politicians rely on to ensure they win an election, are more important than the politicians themselves. In order to make sure your political cake is baked correctly, listening to the needs of the voters is all important. Too many politicians fail to do this and pay the price at the ballot box.
The left side of politics fall into this trap more often than not. This is because they are largely ideologically driven. It doesn’t matter what the voters want: it’s the left’s way or the highway. This is why we are seeing so many governments on the left falling out of favour, as is happening across Europe, the UK, Canada and, right now, the same rumblings are becoming apparent in Australia.
Their ideology is all about taxing just about anything and everything that moves to cover for their economic incompetence, pushing up household power bills by rushing their climate change agenda, allowing illegal immigration, showing undue consideration to racial minorities and going soft on law and order – all things the average voter is against. No matter, on they go regardless.
The two on the right who know how to bake a political cake are Donald Trump and Georgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister. These two listened to their constituents and campaigned on the issues that were of concern to them. Another with a win recently was the newly elected prime minister of Japan, who models herself on Margaret Thatcher. It has to be admitted that the fact the voters concerns aligned with those of these politicians was indeed a bonus.
But that is exactly the problem the left politicians and their friends in the media have. They are completely out of step with the majority of voters. Hence you see the rise of Reform and Farage in the UK, Marine Le Pen in France and the AFD party in Germany. Only this week, a poll revealed a rise in popularity of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party in Australia. The same is happening here with NZ First.
What this is showing is that political parties that demonstrate a sense of nationalism or patriotism are currently winning with the voters. Look at the Democrats and UK Labour: they show a distinct opposite view. Minorities rule and get all the perks and free speech is severely curtailed. And, whatever you do, don’t fly your country’s flag as it might offend someone of a different colour, race or religion, including illegals.
This is all absolute nonsense and does not resonate with the voting public. There was a case in England about 20 years ago where a local left-wing council forbade the flying of the Union Jack by stallholders in the market place, as that might offend. In response all the stallholders, many of Asian ethnicity, flew flags. The place looked like the Queen was about to pass through.
Needless to say at the next election the entire council was voted out and the one Conservative member who proposed the flags should fly was elected as the local MP.
This is a political lesson Luxon needs to learn. You’ll never win big by pandering to minorities or groups of radicals such as the Māori Party. If you don’t give the voters what they want, you are consigning yourself and your party to a risky position. Some say voters have short memories but, on these types of issues, while not major like the economy and cost of living, memories tend to be longer. Jacinda Ardern has still not been forgiven for her Covid tyrannical behaviour and neither should she.
The three things to achieving landslide wins are:
Listen to the voters
Campaign on what they want
Enact those wants into law.
When it comes to issues of race, Luxon appeared to listen by campaigning on the public wants but failed to enact them into law. I think the coalition is not being given enough credit for what they are doing to turn the economy around. The reason is these efforts are being overshadowed by Luxon’s continual pandering to the Māori party. Luxon needs to wake up to the angst he is creating among his voter base.
As a result of his damaging fixation, he is causing National to bleed support. Both he and the party are in desperate need of a reset. Persisting with the status quo will not end well. In 2002 and 2020 National lost in a landslide. That scenario, which could happen again if the current polling trajectory continues, needs to be avoided at all costs.
