The bastardisation of ‘one person one vote’ that the Right have used to unleash a tsunami of racist anger towards co-governance is not only disgraceful, it’s also a total misrepresentation of democracy!
‘One person one vote’ isn’t the only value in Democracy, there are plenty of different values created within various democratic structures in countries we would absolutely recognise as a Democracy!
‘One person one vote’ has been twisted into the battlecry for the tyranny of the majority without even understanding the democratic structures they claim to be defending!
It’s like book burners demanding to know why their children can’t read.
There are numerous examples around the world of Democratic structures within a Democracy that aren’t just ‘one person one vote’. The Electoral College isn’t set up like that, neither is the Senate, nor the House of Lords and in NZ it is one person two votes, so the entire ‘one person one vote’ sanctimony is made even more outrageous by the speed with which the right flip flop ‘One person one vote’ the moment it comes to people with multiple properties voting in multiple local council elections…
MPs’ views on multiple property-owners getting extra local votes
New Zealand has a rule where some ratepayers who own property and pay rates in different local body areas can have additional votes at the local body elections.
…oh don’t National and ACT change their tune the millisecond their privileges are highlighted?
The moment it’s about them and their rich mates who own multiple properties around the country and who get to vote in multiple elections, suddenly ‘One person one vote’ gets thrown under an unsubsidised Bus route that’s running late, yet when it’s co-governance with Māori, they morph into the saviour defenders of the true Western Democratic Faith?
It’s like Brian Tamaki championing freedom of autonomy (except when it comes to drugs, abortion and anal sex). It’s not really freedom of autonomy if you have to get permission from the Bish first.
The naked hypocrisy of the right to twist ‘One person One Vote’ into a negative egalitarian garrotte around the throat of Democracy while screaming ‘we-are-saving-democracy’ is performative art for Fascists.
ACT are on 11% despite promising to implement hard right conflict policy that could implode into a race war by Māori refusing point blank to allow hard won rights to simply be stripped from them because Chris Luxon is too stupid to stop David Seymour.
The counter backlash to this vast polarisation is a huge jump in non-voting Māori stepping back into the universal suffrage because of the shrillness of the Right’s anti-Māori tactics.
TDB has been arguing for some time that 2023 will be one of our most polarised, it will be won and lost on who Kiwis are most frightened by, an ACT/National Government or a Labour/Green/Māori Party Government.
As more non-voting Māori step back into voting, their numbers will grow, making a Labour/Green/Māori Party Government more likely, which will terrify the Right and cause them to become even more extreme in their racism.
Each side will enflame the other.
In ever increasing and alarmingly violent rhetoric.
Because MMP has always brought in moderating forces like NZ First, the pent up political expression of the Right and the Left has been building for almost a quarter of a century and will finally be expressed next year and with the amplification of anger will result in an election that will see resentment whichever side wins.
When you dog whistle up the worst angels of our nature by manufacturing existential threats to democracy, you generate a confrontation that you are ultimately responsible for.
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For the 1st time ever considering not voting because the self-serving ratfuckers on the right or the woke useless losers on the left are equally abhorrent.
Is it too much to ask for a new socialist party that isn’t up to the eyeballs in woke bullshit and just flat out incompetent?
I would have thought that the concept of multiple property owners being permitted multiple votes is NOT democratic. Rather this approach is the exact type of tyranny that democracy was seeking to usurp.
of course- it’s an aggregation of power which can happen almost overnight
Do you mean hypercritical or hypocritical?
I agree that we have different political values in a democratic society and not simply a ‘one person, one vote’ mentality.
In your ‘MPs’ Views’ attachment, Nicola Willis talks hypocritical gobbledegook.
No surprises there!
Yes agree yet another example of more hypocrisy from Seemore just like his recent trip to Samoa with him talking about the importance of relationships when he doesn’t value relationships with Tangata Whenua in his own country. And Seemore is quick to put the boot into our TOW and wants to get rid of our Maori seats (not created by us but by past governments to keep power and control over us as a people) Now in my view his attendance was a waste of my taxes.
Well said cip
Yes agree yet another example of more hypocrisy from Seemore just like his recent trip to Samoa with him talking about the importance of relationships when he doesn’t value relationships with Tangata Whenua in his own country. And Seemore is quick to put the boot into our TOW and wants to get rid of our Maori seats (not created by us but by past governments to keep power and control over us as a people) Now in my view his attendance was a waste of my taxes.
If you wish to fundamentally change the way democracy works in NZ you should seek the peoples consent
What we have instead is middle class woke virtue signalling
I agree we may be heading for a violent reaction
. Maybe you should blame the people that are trying to tweak democracy
I really hope you said the same thing when Key sold off the power Co’s when “the people” voted no!
Alternatively, no taxation without representation.
I agree that all this wanking on about local bodies and democracy by the right for things like water infrastructure is laughable because you will find the entity approach can be traced back to National anyway.
That being said isn’t this issue about being able to vote in local elections as a rate payer if you own property in that particular area? It’s not like if you own 4 houses in central Auckland you get four votes in central Auckland. You still only get one. If you also own in Rotorua then you could vote in that local election as a non resident ratepayer as well. Does that matter? I guess if you somehow vote in candidates in both locations that get access to government funding for projects you could argue its like two bites, but really?
Does it also mean one set of rates? I mean what is good for the goose is good for the gander right?
Well as long as you don’t mind sharing the rubbish and recycling bins between properties.
Those who pay rates to multiple TLAs might believe in “no taxation without representation”.
An autocratic regime that doesn’t allow voting can be democratic if the ruler heeds public opinion and acts accordingly.
Stretching Mike, who decides who and what the leader decides is important? What about freedom of speech and expression? An autocratic regime will always be tyrannical on some level .
This is not just an issue for rich bach owners. What about the many owners of communally owned Maori land? Surely the same voting principle applies to them as well and can’t imagine they will be too pleased if they can’t vote in local body elections where they have ownership.
good point hapuku
Two questions
1. What other form of democracy has been established and consistently more successful than one person, one vote?
2. Where has a Tribal / Clan based governance model been more successful than a democratic one person, one vote model?
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