The Green Election Conference is on and it’s the usual cavalcade of excuses as to why they’ve achieved sweet fuck all as the planet melts.
The problem with the Greens is that they have all the tactical capacity of slow growing moss.
Their tacticians are Checkers playing trying to do Chess.
When Marama went to meet Jacinda in 2020, she had a sheet of paper with one question on it, ‘Why not’.
That’s all the Greens had as a strategy, get on their knees and beg.
Well, if you beg, you get crumbs.
By taking on the empty baubles of vacant Ministerships, all the Greens did was provide political camouflage to Labour’s political incrementalism on climate change.
Imagine if the Greens had spent the last 3 years OUTSIDE the shadow of the Government and had been able to attack Labour each week from the Left, they would be 20% right now!
The Greens are all lovely people, but aren’t ruthless enough for politics. Oh sure, misuse a pronoun, get Te Reo pronunciation wrong, suggest female comedians aren’t funny or claim Mommy Bloggers are over rated and they’ll slash your throat while they make you watch them skin your pets, but when it come to the bear pit of politics, they are virgins at an orgy.
They walked into this problem because their strategy team are clowns. This is why I fear they have lost all political relevancy EVEN IF they are in a position to finally influence Labour post 2023 election as a full and equal partner of a new Government, I have serious doubts they could do anything beyond basic bitch low hanging fruit identity politics tomfoolery.
As I have argued numerous times, the Greens need to hui with the Maori Party and present a united front of bottom line policies because I just don’t believe they have the intellectual capacity to game out a radical economic adaptation plan to prepare us for the economic recession, climate change and structural inequality.
The Greens chose the baubles of vacant Ministerships over fighting a Labour Party that didn’t need them and then acted surprised when they get welded to that incrementalism and rightfully damned for it by climate activists.
The naked reality for genuinely progressive voters concerned with the horrific inequalities caused by neoliberal capitalism now is to force the Labour Party into being actually Left wing by a minor Party forcing them to.
Labour is still hostage to the exact same neoliberal straightjacket that National is and if we want to get Chippy and Grant to pass Real Left legislation, it will be by forcing them to do it.
The problem with the Greens is that they are so feckless that they will fuck up any post negotiation and flip flop around.
Sure, Chloe will win Auckland Central and they will probably take Wellington Central as well, even if they slip below 5%, there will be Green political representation, so the Class Left don’t need to ride to the Greens this election because they are getting in anyway PLUS they just don’t deserve it.
The Greens alienating woke activist base have done more to drive voters away from the Left than polio and cancer combined.
If the Class Left want real change this election, they should consider voting for the Māori Party.
The difference between the Greens and John Tamihere, is that when John Tamihere says he will take GST off food and tax the rich, you fucking know he will.
When the Greens say they’ll do something, most voters laugh.
JT is going to roll into that room, kick arse and take names.
The Greens will have another piece of paper reading ‘why not – EXCLAMATION MARK!’
Vote Green and get a 6 month hui where they can’t work out if they are Arthur or Martha and another 12month hui after that to decide which pronouns to use.
Vote Maori Party and JT will have GST off food and taxing the rich in the first 100 days.
The Greens can not see that they have a stronger chance of getting what they want with a united front alongside the Māori Party.
If we on the Left want real change, not the woke garbage the Greens have spent 6 years harvesting and not the incremental slow death of Labour’s caution, then a vote for the Māori Party to remove GST off food and tax the rich would do more to help the poorest and generate the revenue we need for our social and physical infrastructure than anything else.
The Greens must hui with the Maori Party to agree on a list of bottom lines to force cautious Labour into doing something actually meaningful this Election.
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You make the Green Party look a natural, well-lubricated fit for the National Party. How does that fly in the polls?
The self righteous arrogance of Marama Davidson was unbelievable yesterday .I cannot see the Greens joining with TPM as both leaders would want to be top dog . There are historical divides to overcome to get Maori to work together .. Together they could be a strong force but it will not happen
Trevor. Marama may be the most obnoxious female ever in Parliament, partly because, IMO, she is stupid, and too stupid to know that she is ; a tragedy for the environmental party which I and others quit because of her, but more for her unpalatable racism. Her hating on heterosexual men is also bizarre.
But isn’t this the same Maori Party that went into coalition with the Tories?
J.T. may be ex-Labour, but how many unions disaffiliated and followed Tamahere into his new party? Would J.T. come up with policies that could ever make that happen?
The Greens aren’t the same as they were in the 1970s, or even the 1990s. Most of the Green Parties are now narrowly focussed on attracting the votes of the liberal intelligentsia, in some of the most wealthy seats.
The Maori Party is an unusual beast. It seems to mostly be the political vehicle for the interests of Maori businessmen.
Given TPM could win as many electorate seats as it would be likely to get anyway isn’t party voting for them actually reducing the chances of the left. If TPM won say 7 electorates but got no party votes those seats would all be overhang seats and it would be very unlikely National and Act could win.
I’m hopeful that some of the more serious and principled Green MPs who hail back to the pre-neoliberal Greens like Teanau Tuiono will defect to the Maori Party.
100% agree Nathan
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