As we all know, Jacinda wasn’t elected in 2017. Labour got fewer votes than National but the party with 7%, led by Winston Peters, decided to form a government with Labour with the Greens in support, but not as a part of the government. If only the Greens had the principles that they constantly claim to have, then they would never have gone along with this charade. But absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a little bit of power corrupts to an equal extent.
Yes, I just made that up. It is obviously true though.
At her first meeting with POTUS in 2017, Jacinda showed the nasty side of her character that we are all now used to; she insulted Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, he was the President of the United States and minnows like Jacinda had absolutely no right to talk to him in that way. She was a socialist and he a Republican but sometimes, world leaders have to swallow their differences and just get along for the sake of their countries. Jacinda never had the manners or the decency to behave properly; she always knew better and was determined to make sure everyone knew it. Everyone… even the President of the United States, whose power she could only ever dream of… and I’ll bet she does. Every night.
So that was Jacinda being a smart bitch in 2017. Flash forward by four years and suddenly Jacinda is getting a little taste of the same medicine… and she doesn’t like it one little bit.
The Prime Minister was met with a scattering of protesters in Gisborne, where she spoke about the protections for areas with low vaccination rates once the Auckland border lifts.
The group, most donned in sun huts (?) and few wearing masks, were standing on the side of the road and can be heard yelling ‘freedom’, ‘social credit system, and ‘Chinese Communist Party’. There were about 40-50 people holding signs. There was also about 10-15 protesters at a vaccination centre Ardern visited earlier.
TVNZ
And this is only the latest protest, of course, as the prime minister hardly ever appears in public nowadays, such are the protests she has to encounter. But hey… it only happened to Donald Trump, right?
Trump was a million times braver than she has ever been. He never faltered. But as soon as the protestors got anywhere near her, Jacinda ran for the hills… as she always does.
The difference is that Trump held on. He continued to try to execute his plan for the country, in spite of unbelievable opposition, first from a nasty and divisive Democrat party, and then from an incredibly biased and destructive media, whose only intention was to bring the president down.
Thankfully, they didn’t succeed… well, not until the election anyway.
Now things are different. Trump never interfered with people’s freedoms, never mandated medical treatment of any kind and even caught COVID himself and survived it remarkably well. Jacinda has taken most of our freedoms away, and has caused the devastation and ruin of many families with, among other things, her ‘no jab, no job’ policy.
Strangely, her old mate Joe Biden has adopted a similar policy and it is having a similarly ruinous effect on his presidency as it is having on Jacinda’s political career, and it is not as if Biden was popular before. Nowadays, most of the stories about him tell of him breaking wind at the COP26 conference, and the rumour of him crapping his pants at the Vatican. I guess even Jacinda is better than that. Trump certainly was.
Some journalists think that Jacinda’s reluctance to visit Auckland is because she is afraid of catching COVID because she wore a mask everywhere she went in Auckland on her flying visit last week. If she listened to her own endless pontifications, she is in no danger of catching COVID, as she is double jabbed… or is that just what she keeps telling her faithful sheep to keep them in line and under control? You have to wonder, Comrade.
I don’t think she is afraid of catching COVID… not particularly. She is afraid of meeting people who don’t agree with her and who are prepared to stand up and say so. Having been treated with adulation for the previous 3 years, Ardern just doesn’t know how to deal with people who don’t like her. In the house, she can throw out a nasty comment (“Nine long years” is a favourite), flounce back on her seat in a fit of pique and look for cover from the speaker, but she can’t do that out on the street. So she hides. It is the only way she knows.
Imagine if she had to deal with even a fraction of the negativity and relentless media pressure that Trump had to deal with for four years? She’d be in a straightjacket somewhere, rocking back and forward, sucking her thumb.
“Nobody marched when I was elected” is, as they say, a quote that has not aged well. They are marching now, Jacinda. Best get that straightjacket out for today when the Groundswell protesters hit the streets once again.
Groundswell Otorohanga protest. Photo credit The BFD.
