The saddest Day for NZ Democracy
I thought it would be close, the landline polls have inflated National and under valued Labour and it came down in the end to a one one vote majority.
This is a terrible result for NZ, not because John Keys vacant aspiration and free market ideas to solve an economic crises caused by those very same free market ideas are a depressing indictment on what passes as intellectual political debate, it is the saddest day for NZ Democracy because this result is the lowest voter turn out since the 1880s!
We have a terribly sick system when so many are disenfranchised from it. 100 000 fewer voters than last election (which was one of the lowest on record), 100 000 fewer voters for National (so Key can't claim a mandate for his policies) and Labour lost quarter of a million votes.
How to re-engage with those NZers who have been disconnected will be the task of any opposition party in 2014.
posted by Bomber @ 9:09 am
26 comments
26 Comments:
I voted this time specifically to NOT vote for National.
Presumably selling our future to finance today will be the number one mandate, as it has been for the last 3 years. This naturally will give a temporary illusion of prosperity and getting "back on track" when in fact the country is on a slow burn to becoming Greece. As looting of our country reaches a crescendo and this horrible façade is finally revealed,(presumably) Labour will be left to once again pick up the pieces, forced to make the hard decisions no politician wants to make... which will ensure Labour gets voted out, and the whole sick process can begin anew.
100 000 fewer voters for National (so Key can't claim a mandate for his policies)
On preliminary votes, National's vote is up in absolute terms, not down:
2008 - 951,145
2011 - 957,769.
Do you think we have until 2014 to piss around with a parliament talk shop that keeps us diverted while the banksters are sucking workers dry around the world?
The rising abstention plurality tells us what is going on. 11 million didnt vote in Spain. 4.5 million lost to the socialists for being reactionaries.
Lowest turnout in NZ ever. And you say that the road back is to do a Dulux job on the Beehive?
Time to build the General Assemblies everywhere and the party of the workers in the streets and workplaces.
Yeah mate, spent the morning telling people that thanks to National I can't afford to feed my children, so angry at the general population for not caring. Not proud to be a kiwi, gutted so many feel the same they didn't even bother to vote.
I have some ideas as to why people are so disenfranchised. But for a short, sharp summary, here's a link for you and everyone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AjgWyxJAGQ
http://www.youtube.com/user/kohacooperative#p/u/4/yxJfJ63pVgw
Electoral commission not independent?
"How to re-engage with those NZers who have been disconnected will be the task of any opposition party in 2014."
I don't hear the Greens complaining; and Peters has a grin ffom ear to ear
Deb, I am less than enamoured of Green voters right about r now.
1,775 Green Voters helped re-elect Dunne to Ohariu. Without Dunne , the Nats would be up S**t Creek...
In 2008 there were people "in attendance" at the polling booth wearing National Party rosettes.
In 2011 I went to the polling booth and the scrutineer asked me "what do I write?"(I obviously listed my occupation as writer) This was so intrusive at the very time I was making a personal and critical political choice. These are the first sort of things which have to stop if the people are to be allowed to vote unhindered. This was like being advised by a winz officer that prostitution was now legal ( this happened to me in 2001) The beauraucratic attitude of being above the law (concerning personal privacy) must be challenged at every opportunity. There are a plethora of these institutional bullies, not only the ones in uniform, believing it their right to inform themselves of innocent citizens' business, who vanguard the established plutocracy, weilding their psychic truncheons in the corridoors of power. These are the swords which must be turned to ploughshares and allow the punchdrunk punters' heads to clear, albeit momentarily, and approach the voting booth without fear.
GRHYS
So you think it is my job to feed your kids do you?
Ever thought about not having more kids than you can afford?
Thank god we have a National government.
Bruv
Someone I know said there was a guy wearing a National Party rosette standing around yesterday in the voting area at a poll station.
Bomber, Don't be jumping to conclusions again. Putting the entirety of the low voter turnout onto young voters may give those who stuck to the "land line polls are too old school" a bit of an out but the numbers just don't stack up.
If the low participation rate was confined to young voters disillusioned with politics, then it would mean the vast majority of 18-25 year old voters, close on 80% didn't vote, and that is not what happened Many, many young people were engaged by the process which indicates the problem of low participation is spread across the age groups and the reasons are more diverse than you propose.
I believe a big chunk of voters were dissuaded by the incessant propaganda about "KeyCo having election 2011 in the bag" right from the day after election 2008.
This is particularly true for those voters whose animus towards the scum sucking guttersnipe wasn't as great as it was for many of us.
Those voters who vote left because they more or less subscribe to an humanist ethos and who have no firm dislike of KeyCo developed yet, stayed away from the booths in droves.
Eh? Well this is a perfectly human wish to be on the winning side. Not the "see our team is better than your team dross we saw in the RWC, but a quieter more personal emotion. Many people are brought down by losing something deemed important or vital or whatever.
This hits hard when times elsewhere are tough and peeps start to feel they cannot take a trick anywhere.
For those peeps it is easier to ignore the contest completely than to put oneself in the position of backing a complete loser.
The Warriors have provided a few examples of this over the years. When they are doing badly their spectators dwindle down to the die-hards. Yet when they are winning the stands are full of peeps who can truthfully say they have been warriors fans since 1995.
The incessant ubiquitous media insistence that KeyCo were going to win big -(what was it again 58% of the party vote?) for the full 3 years of KeyCo 1 regime took its toll. many voters stayed away so as not to have to suffer the slings and arrows of yet another kick to the groonies.
Christchurch where the drop off was the biggest is the classic example of this. Their lives have been turned upside down and not in a good way, one shit storm after another since the global financial meltdown in 2008, why on earth would they invite another setback?
All of this was on the back of a policy free intellect free campaign by large media outlets that Key = good, Goff= bad.
This is an absolute carbon copy of the campaigns run by Fairfax and Murdoch in Oz following the Keating Govt loss, which Murdoch copied in england after his mate the Bliar got the flick.
Most of our 'journos' careerist bimbos that they are, were being supervised by veterans of Oz and englander TV and print outlets,so creating the same sort of 'ambiance' was a doddle.
If humanism is to get a look in at anytime soon it must take the bull by the nuts and point out where the interests of NZ's media owners lie, parallel to launching their 'great policies'.
Otherwise this crooked game will continue for many more elections until a huge % are permanently disengaged.
This is too big an ask for the shiny suited pudgy combed over wanna-Be's who permeate Labour's ranks but it isn't too big for some of the other parties who find themselves in opposition.
If an honest movement doesn't take up this cudgel NZ First will. They will in their normal self serving approach that eventually causes further disappointment.
@Nitrium, you’re probably right. Think of the course of events in 1984 – a snap election called by Muldoon on live TV when drunk; won by Labour under Lange; and then the currency debacle of the next few days when the truly parlous state of the nation’s finances became known. And then we all paid the price for National’s mismanagement.
"Big Bruv" - yes, mate, I do think it's our collective responsibility to look after our children.
Because if we don't do it now, we'll be "looking after them" in prisons, or cemetaries.
Your selfishness is half the reason we have so much social dislocation in this country. The whole concept of your "Me Generation" is corrupt.
Western Springs Road polling booth was full of Blue Rosettes all Melissa Lee supporters keeping the South Aucklander's away I presume.
I don't think rosettes are illegal though.
There is no point blaming the system for the no shows in the election.
We have an election system which almost guarrantees your vote counts.
We have a range of groups that reflect a diverse range of views on the political spectrum from hard left to hard right.
We had an election campaign where there was quite a distinction between the policies being offered by the two major parties.
In my mind this is just a lack of interest in politics by many people as opposed to a sick system. What part of the system is actually sick?
The part of the system that is sick is that no effort is put into educating school children about civics.Total lack of understanding of the system and the value of the indvidual's choice exists across all age groups because of declining literacy and the total lack of compulsory NZ history lessons. If we are going to offer economics at secondary and intermediate level then politics should be be compulsory. No migrant should be allowed Nz citzenship without a 100% pass in an exam about the country's parliamentary history and process. Our society has changed radically in the last 3 decades. NZ born professional classes have all moved overseas.Those left are the the poor the uneducated the dependent and the childless. We need to educate the next generation of migrants and their children. I have been doing these for my offsprings friends for more than 10 years. I am willing to join and canvas for the next 3 years for any political party other than National and Act who will pay my travel costs to work around the country and give presentations. I can sort the software and slide shows, and I have teaching experience as well as being a teacher of Public Speaking. We have to counteract the dumbing down and unwarranted apathy . People have been deliberately disenfranchised.Others have described succintly in this thread how this phenomenon has occurred and its acceleration.
Sociopaths???
So you classify anybody who disagrees with your view of politics on the Right as a sociopath do you?
Never let it be said that the left are bereft of hyperbole.
DebsisDead what happened to you blog? You could revive it as "my comments on other peoples' blogs". :)
In a way, this result in the long term can help Labour. That the Greens did better can provide a blueprint for them and if now's not the time to refresh the front bench, then when?
There needs to be a change in the front bench with a new leader (one of Shearer, Robertson, King, Cunliffe or Parker) - although Goff should be retained in some capacity near the top of the party while some of the new Labour members being promoted into parliament. Of course all this should wait a bit (I'd go with about 6 months) so that there can actually be a discussion of the new leader, as opposed to 3 years ago when it was suddenly Goff.
One of the things that really helped National 3 years ago was the appearance of a revitalised party with a new leader and a reshuffled front bench, but over the next three years, the party will inevitably stagnate and there will be hard questions asked of them that they will be unable to answer.
Who knows , maybe by the next election,or before hopefully , we'll have a more balanced media... BAHHAHAHA ...yeah righto !!
We've had years of a media which pretty much got bored with Labour and turned on Helen ( ever see a flattering photo of her in The Press ?)
Now they're like a big cheerleading squad for Jonkey , Paul henry/Holmes in the lead closely followed by Duncan garner/ sainsbury/ soper ...oh gourd the list of trough feeders just goes on and on . The payoff of course is a job as a Press Officer or a spin doctor for ANY OLD POLITICIAN .
I know a lot of young people who think Winston is HILARIOUS and vote for him for that reason only ...some of them even see him as Left wing .
There's a lot of educatin' to be done in the next 3 years and w ecan't leave it up to mainstream media
Dear Gosman . For your information ; [ sociopath |ˈsōsēōˌpaθ|
noun
a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience. ]
And further more , I don't really have a Left OR Right leaning thing going on . I labour under the illusion that common sense will prevail but those evil sociopaths keep getting in the way of that . So , yes . Sociopaths ???
From urbandictionary.com: "A sociopath is often well liked because of their charm and high charisma, but they do not usually care about other people. They think mainly of themselves and often blame others for the things that they do. They have a complete disregard for rules and lie constantly. They seldom feel guilt or learn from punishments".
Sound familiar?
Hahahhaaaaaa .... Gosman ! You're so funny . I'm not pretending I'm not ' left leaning ' . I seriously believe I'm neither Left NOR Right leaning although I do get your point . I just don't happen to agree with it . And of course I'll go labeling , and making judgements , and making generalizations too . Isn't it fun ? I try to leave the pretenses to the cunning , sociopathic , Right wing Machiavellians whom masquerade as politicians whom are supposed to have all our interests at heart . Not to go all corporate entity / sociopathic / psychopathic on us . Ironically , a fresh news item is about leading corporate entities using psychological techniques on us unsuspecting normal people to sell us shit ! Hah hahahah ! Hyperbole indeed ... Tich , tich , tich . Further more , I believe Left politicians are as sociopathic as the Right . It's a politician thing . That's why we have to keep a very , very close eye on the deviant bastards . That's why I'm so fucked off so many were to fucking LAZY to go and vote , you lazy f.....g c.....s , how dare you ! In these heady times too ! It's also my earnest belief , we have no real political identity so I don't know why you're so worried . If you support the Right then you are , by default ... Right ! If you are Left ...then you are Right . See ! It's such fun ! It's such fun to fuck around with peoples lives for little more than a stiffy , a fancy car and the few bob that belongs to others . Wonky jonky and Pit Bull Banksie will drag New zealand to new lows , mark my words . . . Speaking of which , here's my Logo for that scrubby little hill in Wellington . " Wellies , best put them on because you'll soon be up to your knees in shit ! " A bit long but I think it makes a statement , what do you think Gosman ? " Dominic " Sheer , brilliant timing man ! Well done for that . "
At least there is one good thing that can be said about this horrid election: Legalise Weed party got a 192% increase in party vote, and grew to 9,516 votes!
Read more here:
http://www.legalise.org.nz/elections-2011/
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