The biggest lesson for NZ Left from Corbyn’s defeat – go truly radical in 2023

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There is one graph that illustrates the biggest lesson for the NZ Left from Corbyn’s defeat, it’s this one…

…middle class boomers who benefitted the most from a subsidised life under post war democracies and then cashed in during the mass privatisation vote hard right and the working class boomers who were disenfranchised by free market globalisation joined them in Brexit backlash.

This is an age and culture issue where the interests of those who have won from neoliberalism AND those who’ve lost from neoliberalism have joined as a voting age block.

Middle class Boomers will never surrender their privilege.

So what is the lesson for the NZ Left? Wait until 2023 to be truly radical because it will be in 2023 for the first time in NZ Political history that Gen Xers, Gen Y + Millennials will be the democratic majority…

Boomers would be starting to dwindle in numbers, certainly relative to the younger cohorts behind them. They would have been overwhelmed in numerical terms by the Millennials and Generations X and Y in the previous elections in 2026 and 2023.

Only 49% of those aged 18-29 voted in 2014. By 2029 that proportion would be much, much higher for those voters as they near their 40s and 50s. By then, the demographics of New Zealand’s population structure will have become political destiny.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

…fellow Gen Xers, Gen Y and Millennials, our time to reshape the entire hegemonic structure is coming.

21 COMMENTS

  1. IMO there’s 3 kinds of left.

    There’s the new left or red left who believe Stalinist/Maoist communism was wonderfully fantastic and lack any understanding of history.

    The second type are the left wing capitalists who believe that a heavily regulated free market dan produce vast amounts of prosperity.

    Then there’s the woke left Social Justice Worriers who assume if the say racist, bigoted, transphob or any number of tropes enough times then that will be enough to assume a general election victory.

    So I think left wing people want workers rights and wages that keep pace with inflation and benefits, penalty rates for over time, weekend and night shift, a good holiday, maternity leave family and good health.

  2. It’s just a pity that the oldies are more likely to vote, and because of that it will take longer to get justice back into governance than it otherwise would.

  3. The graph shows that the blue vote increases as age increases. Does that mean that the younger, red age blocks will become dominant over time? Or does it mean that people change their preferences with age, from red to blue? Does our young idealism get replaced with middle-aged reality/cynicism?

    And have the woke occupied the left flank and offset the “middle” more toward the centre-right? Does not wanting the change the woke demand now make you a conservative?

    • I doubt that there has been such a difference between the generations like this – although it would be worth checking – simply because of the disparity in wealth

  4. So Boomers are the problem?…Another interpretation

    https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/475948-brexit-corbyn-tories-johnson/

    “It’s relatively easy to explain the Tories’ spectacular victory in the UK’s general election. For the elites it was about Jeremy Corbyn, but for the voters it was all about Brexit. Indeed, it was Brexit 2.0. Time for BoJo to deliver. And Mr Lavrov goes to Washington.”

    CrossTalking with Glenn Diesen, Dmitry Babich, Alexander Mercouris, and Marcus Papadopoulos.

    (btw it will be interesting to see how many millennials who value freedom of speech and information switch from the so-called Left and vote Act next NZ Election)

    • The problem is identity politics and saying boomers are the problem is that it is easy to do and funny enough open age discrimination destroys votes!

      Politicians could target youth without putting the boot into boomers and the elderly, but sadly social graces and complexity thinking, isn’t a ‘thing’ anymore when blaming others for everything and getting on social media when identity attacks based on age are encouraged and condoned.

      I’m pretty sure that saying Muslims are to blame for all ills of the world would be removed, while saying male, stale boomers are to blame for all evil in the world, has started echoing from certain politicians mouths.. age discrimination is rife to save money on wages, and votes know it, while certain politicians are encouraging it.

      Reverse age and race and sex discrimination isn’t helping the Greens get votes, and nor will it help Labour. Likewise the old chestnut to blame all the home owners and landlords for the housing crisis when 1 million migrants in the past 7 years have come into NZ and apparently live in thin air and jobs are so plentiful and fabulous in NZ that jobseeker is up 11%, record food parcels are being handed out, hell even the migrants now eat dog food such is Godzone under free trade for butter, people trafficking NZ visas, and fool the idiots in NZ into open borders, benefits for the world, and selling off your country cheap.

      • Fantastic coverage their SaveNZ; I couldnt have said it better.

        using age descrimation is apparently now another ‘weapon” used in National’s asenial against te coalition government today.

        Aged fokks beware of 2020 if national win the election as you willl be targeted for paying wrongly for the ills of our time.

  5. The biggest lesson for NZ Left from Corbyn’s defeat – go truly radical in 2023

    NOPE, NOPE, NOPE, it’s the opposite lesson. UK Labour created a mismash of policy that did not appeal to enough people and was frightening people because it went from extreme to the trivial and was very complicated.

    The mainstream don’t wants more taxes especially when it comes with subsidising more migrant families who don’t currently live there, from those extra taxes. If you can’t understand that then you will lose an election.

    Even Natz more migrants but less taxes is more appealing that our previous Labour’s more migrants more taxes.

    NZ Labour won last time, by swinging enough votes with the three mainstream policies, no TPPA , less immigration and no CGT and with a bit of a breath of fresh air in the name of Jacinda, they limped home. It was the policy and the person selling it who seemed believable that did it.

    The woke left screaming more taxes, for more migrants or more beneficiaries, are not the mainstream.

    Benefits are supposed to be for people who need them, like the disabled, sick, genuinely unemployed etc not to subsides employers wages with cheaper and cheaper labour, topped up by the state. This is even more of a problem with open borders aka Britain and the expanding EU.

    Most of the data against that view and used by the woke, were created before Rogernomics and globalism so the statistics for refugee/migrant contribution etc is not current now that wage and conditions have declined to the point that being a beneficiary is actually a more stable option for income.

    I’m not saying you can live well on a benefit or even it is enough to live on, but I am saying that by the time you put in other costs of working you are often worse off being employed such is the drop in real terms of wages in NZ.

    I agree with Corbyn and think he is one of the better politicians in the world, but the UK Labour hodge podge of more taxes and more migrants and greater people accessing the NHS, with trivial bribes like free broadband is hardly resonating with the main stream (and obviously not, with the elderly).

    With a bit of modification of policy and less attacks within themselves UK Labour could have won. I don’t blame Corbyn for the loss, it was the other idiots in Labour going on about open borders that probably scared the bejesus out of the working class elderly up North.

    Wanting more migrants on the NHS is not a very good message to be promoting when the week before the election a little boy was photographed on the floor of a hospital because there was no bed.

    What was next for them, euthanasia to get the beds free? Well Harold Shipman already got away with that.

  6. It is no surprise to me that older males voted against Corbyn. Note it was a vote against Corbyn rather than a vote for Boris. I am sure they remember the years when UK was destroyed by unions lead by the likes of Corbyn. They destroyed the ship yards and car manufacturers and saw the waste in nationlized industies.Young people like me were forced to emigrate to get ahead.

    • @Trevor, only they used to vote Labour up North, but switched to Tory after the remain and open borders campaign by Labour which Corbyn apparently doesn’t even believe in… so the swing votes to conservatives were not due to the unions of old destroyed 30 years ago, that they were voting against…

      Of course not doing anything for democracy by having a campaign of lies from the Conservatives being ok, doesn’t help.

  7. Fantastic coverage their SaveNZ; I couldnt have said it better.

    using age descrimation is apparently now another ‘weapon” used in National’s asenial against te coalition government today.

    Aged fokks beware of 2020 if national win the election as you willl be targeted for paying wrongly for the ills of our time.

  8. The only lesson to be drawn from the 2019 election is that party leaders need to be strong when it comes to bringing into line dissidents within their own party. Labour lost in the UK because Corbyn was unable to stare down his party’s remain block, and was therefore forced to offer a brexit policy that was extremely unpopular with Labour’s traditional support.

    I don’t think too much can be read into the youth vote for Labour since the young largely supported the remain option anyway.

  9. So the author thinks the answer is more identity politics, with a generational twist this time? As for “going radical” – apparently the feminism of Jacinda Ardern and Louisa Walls isn’t radical enough for the author. There are plenty of radicals in this government – single-issue radicals.

    Here’s another possibility. Rather than going “radical”, maybe the answer is focused, intelligent, evidence-based and credible policies. There is plenty of evidence that gross economic inequality has a whole raft of negative social outcomes – those at the bottom pay the highest price, but there are also negative consequences for the better-off e.g. simmering resentment, crime. And there is plenty of evidence that a user-pays approach increases equality.

    Plus of course having a likeable leader who comes across well in front of the cameras seems to be hugely important in 21st century politics. UK Labour did not have this advantage, whereas NZ Labour does – it’s one of the few boxes this government has ticked.

  10. I just heard only 2 % of Democratic voters over 65 support Bernie Sanders. I don’t understand that. Maybe why there’s a big Biden vote. Dinna kin both , to put it into theatrical Scots.

    • ‘Only 2% over 65s support Sanders’ ? I heard that on some you-tube video.
      Remember that if you make a statement which includes a statistic, then 92% of people will believe you without checking.

      • Either MSNBC or CNN. Also surprised by the enormous Democratic support of American Jews despite Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as Israel’s. For mad evangelical Christians actually — Revelations end times proving. Funny. If it wasn’t hideous.

        I suppose American Jews, allowed their individuality, which is their true selves, don’t like his dog whistle racism, are insulted by his unintelligence, and, I hear, are really quite even-handed about the state of Israel.

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