Trotter has taken the 2008 election defeat of Labour with his usual grace and accurate political commentary.
That is, if you happen to be a communist die-hard who has unshakable conviction all white males are misogynists. They are not of course, but don't tell him. John Key may want to appoint a court jester.
Here's the bulk of his transcript, in italics. Guest fisker is none other than Chris Trotter himself. Yes, I took a few of his own quotes from other articles as reply to his diatribe. Don't expect it to make sense, it didn't in context either. Seriously.
WELL, THE New Zealand Left has woken up to its very own 9/11.
>> I have met the enemy, and he is ….. curiously unimpressive
Last night's result represents not just a slap in the face for Helen Clark and her Labour-led government, it sets the seal on the political values of a whole generation.
>> The trouble with this government," he said, "is that it is always telling us what to do."
Clark and her colleagues stood for all that was good about the baby-boomer generation: its idealism and its 40-year refusal to bow down to the reactionary values of an uptight, male-dominated society driven by a dangerous determination to discipline and punish.
>> "The truth is that the Right does not believe in treating every person as a thinking, feeling, individual with hopes and aspirations to be respected and possibly fulfilled. [Steady on Chris - Zen]
That's what triumphed last night: the hunger to punish - and a crippling fear of social change. And, like most things in this world, it's happened before. The New Zealand electorate doesn't often behave selfishly or stupidly. In fact, apart from last night, I can recall only one other occasion when it has done so - 1975.
>> I couldn’t suppress a rather smug grin of my own, being secretly delighted that the Right had risen to the intended provocation, as I rather expected it would.
In every other election I can remember, the New Zealand electorate has demonstrated an acute grasp of what was necessary politically. They didn't always get it, but that was because of the way the first-past-the-post electoral system worked to frustrate the will of the majority. Had the popular vote been reflected in the composition of its parliaments, New Zealand would have had a very different post-war history.
>> Genuine patriotism in the this country has always been the preserve of the Left.
And it's been there for all of us to absorb in the polls - though many of us simply refused to believe our fellow citizens could be so dumb - or so mean.
>> This legislation [s59 repeal] needs to be withdrawn, immediately. And its supporters (among whom I include myself) need to acknowledge their failure..By refusing to recognise the sheer magnitude of the opposition to this bill, the Left has forfeited the electorate's trust...
But, we were wrong. They were.
>> Passing this legislation now, over the objections of four-fifths of the electorate, will not settle the matter. The people will punish the Left..by voting the..Right into power.
Looking at the result, you realise just how much this country and its people have changed. So much so that, last night not even our proportional system of electoral representation could rescue us from ourselves.
>> "The biggest obstacle to a National victory is a lack of staying power"
So, what was it in the end? What led a majority of the New Zealand electorate to reject a government that has not only done it no great harm..
>> "Social peace for a paltry half-million dollars? Strikes me as the most courageous and forgivable kind of corruption."
Last night's result was manufactured out of the besetting sin of the last 150 years of western history - the crisis of masculinity. What, exactly, is a man in a world of corporate and public bureaucracies? A world of tin-pot bosses, impossible schedules, and unrealistic expectations? A world where to show your feelings is to reveal your weakness? A world where girls can do anything, but boys make a virtue out of boorish stupidity? A world where cynicism trumps heroism, and where simple human decency is dismissed as political correctness?
>> But that’s the way of the Right: forever doing somebody else’s bidding; organising somebody else’s show; doing somebody else’s dirty work. [Being somebody else's stereotype? - Zen]
It was these: the men who just couldn't cope with the idea of being led by an intelligent, idealistic, free-spirited woman; the gutless, witless, passionless creatures of the barbecue-pit and the sports bar (and the feckless females who put up with them); who voted Helen Clark out of office.
>> "New Zealand will now be experiencing civil strife on a scale not seen since the 1860s" [Now there's a prediction we can review in 3 years - Zen]
John Key - you're welcome to them.
>> WELL, THE New Zealand Left has woken up to its very own 9/11. [And around we go on the Chris Trotter Wheel of Hate]
Chris Trotter: The night MMP couldn't save us from ourselves
That is, if you happen to be a communist die-hard who has unshakable conviction all white males are misogynists. They are not of course, but don't tell him. John Key may want to appoint a court jester.
Here's the bulk of his transcript, in italics. Guest fisker is none other than Chris Trotter himself. Yes, I took a few of his own quotes from other articles as reply to his diatribe. Don't expect it to make sense, it didn't in context either. Seriously.
WELL, THE New Zealand Left has woken up to its very own 9/11.
>> I have met the enemy, and he is ….. curiously unimpressive
Last night's result represents not just a slap in the face for Helen Clark and her Labour-led government, it sets the seal on the political values of a whole generation.
>> The trouble with this government," he said, "is that it is always telling us what to do."
Clark and her colleagues stood for all that was good about the baby-boomer generation: its idealism and its 40-year refusal to bow down to the reactionary values of an uptight, male-dominated society driven by a dangerous determination to discipline and punish.
>> "The truth is that the Right does not believe in treating every person as a thinking, feeling, individual with hopes and aspirations to be respected and possibly fulfilled. [Steady on Chris - Zen]
That's what triumphed last night: the hunger to punish - and a crippling fear of social change. And, like most things in this world, it's happened before. The New Zealand electorate doesn't often behave selfishly or stupidly. In fact, apart from last night, I can recall only one other occasion when it has done so - 1975.
>> I couldn’t suppress a rather smug grin of my own, being secretly delighted that the Right had risen to the intended provocation, as I rather expected it would.
In every other election I can remember, the New Zealand electorate has demonstrated an acute grasp of what was necessary politically. They didn't always get it, but that was because of the way the first-past-the-post electoral system worked to frustrate the will of the majority. Had the popular vote been reflected in the composition of its parliaments, New Zealand would have had a very different post-war history.
>> Genuine patriotism in the this country has always been the preserve of the Left.
And it's been there for all of us to absorb in the polls - though many of us simply refused to believe our fellow citizens could be so dumb - or so mean.
>> This legislation [s59 repeal] needs to be withdrawn, immediately. And its supporters (among whom I include myself) need to acknowledge their failure..By refusing to recognise the sheer magnitude of the opposition to this bill, the Left has forfeited the electorate's trust...
But, we were wrong. They were.
>> Passing this legislation now, over the objections of four-fifths of the electorate, will not settle the matter. The people will punish the Left..by voting the..Right into power.
Looking at the result, you realise just how much this country and its people have changed. So much so that, last night not even our proportional system of electoral representation could rescue us from ourselves.
>> "The biggest obstacle to a National victory is a lack of staying power"
So, what was it in the end? What led a majority of the New Zealand electorate to reject a government that has not only done it no great harm..
>> "Social peace for a paltry half-million dollars? Strikes me as the most courageous and forgivable kind of corruption."
Last night's result was manufactured out of the besetting sin of the last 150 years of western history - the crisis of masculinity. What, exactly, is a man in a world of corporate and public bureaucracies? A world of tin-pot bosses, impossible schedules, and unrealistic expectations? A world where to show your feelings is to reveal your weakness? A world where girls can do anything, but boys make a virtue out of boorish stupidity? A world where cynicism trumps heroism, and where simple human decency is dismissed as political correctness?
>> But that’s the way of the Right: forever doing somebody else’s bidding; organising somebody else’s show; doing somebody else’s dirty work. [Being somebody else's stereotype? - Zen]
It was these: the men who just couldn't cope with the idea of being led by an intelligent, idealistic, free-spirited woman; the gutless, witless, passionless creatures of the barbecue-pit and the sports bar (and the feckless females who put up with them); who voted Helen Clark out of office.
>> "New Zealand will now be experiencing civil strife on a scale not seen since the 1860s" [Now there's a prediction we can review in 3 years - Zen]
John Key - you're welcome to them.
>> WELL, THE New Zealand Left has woken up to its very own 9/11. [And around we go on the Chris Trotter Wheel of Hate]
Chris Trotter: The night MMP couldn't save us from ourselves
He's a vile little bitter man, but I think he must have been hungover. He once said Libertarianz were aligned to the men who undertook the Oklahoma bombing - but then he once fondly remembered how unionists would treat "scabs" with violence.
ReplyDeleteThieving nasty bitter little collectivist, who thinks everyone not in his tribe is evil.
Thieving nasty bitter little collectivist, who thinks everyone not in his tribe is evil.
ReplyDeleteWhat? Are you quite sure this isn't a blog about our [American] politics?
Sigh. And I'd been stopping by here in hopes of reading about a healthy political system. "Bet they aren't as insane over in New Zealand," I told myself.
Jim, it seems you are not familiar with Chris Trotter. While LibertyScott and I differ on many things, my opinion on Trotter is very close to his after having been reading the man's columns almost weekly since 2004.
ReplyDeleteRight, Lucyna, I know nothing of New Zealand politics. I've just taken a recent interest.
ReplyDeleteI have this site and the Herald Sun bookmarked. If any of you would suggest another New Zealand politics site (blog, newspaper, etc.) that I should bookmark, I'd appreciate the tips. Thanks.
Hey, Zen
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I wonder how many whiskeys Chris had downed before he wrote that piece. I could not resist cutting and pasting some of the quotations. Cheers.
@ Jim - I would suggest the NZ website "Scoop" (www.scoop.co.nz) - good, unmoderated news (you get the far right and the far left, and pretty much all in between; has broken many interesting stories).
ReplyDeleteAs for poor old Chris, he does rather see things in terms of tribes, but it is hard to see what people thought they were getting from a National-Act government.
Less civil servants? Not if you count outsourced officer workers from the 90s experiments National tried (dozens of DHBs in the health system anyone?).
A pro-life government? Not judging by National's 1977 abortion act, and the lack of action by National 1990-99 on life issues.
And I don't understand why libertyscott thinks Chris is a thief, or why collectivist is a bad thing (aren't churches collectivist in nature?).
Thanks, SquareDrive.
ReplyDelete