Trump’s victory at manipulating culture war resentment demands the Left step back and consider positive populism to counter the pull of Trump’s negative populism.
Populism vs Authoritarian political currents have been exposed in last years IPSOS poll…
New Zealand broken and in decline – new survey
A global wave of disillusionment and disenfranchisement has not spared New Zealand, with a majority of respondents to a survey here agreeing that New Zealand society is broken and the country is in decline.
Ipsos New Zealand asked 1001 Kiwis about their hopes for the future and their views of the state of the nation in the final week of February. The results, exclusively obtained by Newsroom, line up with the pollster’s findings from 28 countries overseas: People believe the economy is rigged to benefit the rich and powerful and traditional politicians aren’t doing anything about it.
Three in five respondents told Ipsos that New Zealand society was in decline and that the country is broken, aligning closely with results from overseas. This is the first time New Zealand has been included in this survey, which Ipsos has run elsewhere five times since 2016.
Paul Spoonley, the former director of centre of research excellence He Whenua Taurikura, said the findings align with the long-running Edelman Trust Barometer study, which doesn’t include New Zealand.
“What they’re recording internationally, which is repeated in this Ipsos survey, is a very rapid decline in trust, particularly in governments and in experts, and a decline in the level of social cohesion internationally,” he said.
“What you see repeated in both the Edelman Trust Barometer and the Ipsos survey is this dissatisfaction, but more than that, distrust of leaders, within government or out. Attached to that distrust is a post-Covid pessimism in the collective.”
…yes this spike in extremism is deeply concerning, BUT as Jack Vowles points out, we’ve had levels of dissatisfaction that were higher in the past…
Jack Vowles: Stop the panic – we’ve been here before
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this year. There is no earlier IPSOS data to compare it with, but the inference is clear. We are on a downward track towards dangerous populism and authoritarianism.
The New Zealand Election Study (NZES) has been in the field during much the same period, collecting post-election opinion. We have been asking similar questions over the past thirty years, asking people to agree or disagree with the following statements. This data can provide a useful longer-term perspective.
‘Most members of Parliament are out of touch with the rest of the country’. The percentage agreeing is up since 2020 – 51 per cent in 2023 compared to 43 per cent in 2020. But looking further back, agreement has ranged in the low to mid-forties since about 2005, but in 2002 it was at about 49 per cent. In 1993, the first year we asked the question, it was 60 per cent.
‘People like me don’t have any say over what the government does’. 45 per cent agree this year, up from 40 per cent in 2020. But in 2011 48 per cent agreed with the statement, and in 1993, 63 per cent.
‘The New Zealand Government is largely run by big interests’. 51 percent agreed in 2023, up from 36 per cent in 2020. But the 2020 number was unusually low. Normally agreement has tracked up and down around 40 per cent since 2002. In 1993, 60 percent agreed. There is a slight tendency for agreement with this statement to be higher under National governments, but there may be no causal connection.
‘A few strong leaders could make this country better than all the laws and talk’. 51 per cent agreed with this statement in 2023, up from 43 per cent in 2020. But since 1996 agreement with this authoritarian position has normally tracked well over 50 per cent, dropping down from 56 per cent in 2011 to the low point of 43 per cent in 2020. 2023 is a reversal of the trend, but we have been there before.
How satisfied are you with the way democracy works in New Zealand? Those very or fairly satisfied: in 2023, 69 per cent. Down from 73 per cent in 2020. But 69 per cent is still higher than all the previous numbers except those from 1996. Normally, those who are satisfied have tracked at about 65 per cent. Those not satisfied in 2023 were 25 per cent.
…where Jack I think is wrong is in terms of the radicalisation and polarisation we now have.
Yes there was a deep dissatisfaction with the system in the previous years Jack compares to, but the difference is why people are dissatisfied and the new extents of radicalisation they have mutated into.
Sure you might be pissed off with NZ politics in 1996, because that was the first year NZ First swept the Māori electorates and we had MMP, the difference now is that the dissatisfaction is driven by social media hate algorithms that has radicalised and polarised the dissatisfied in a far more extreme fashion.
Yes dissatisfaction has been higher in the past, but the extreme nature of the radicalisation is what is different now.
There’s a vast difference between being unhappy with what Ruth Richardson was doing in 1993 and the belief that Jacinda, her family and the entire front bench of the Labour Party should be hanged for crimes against humanity at a Covid Nuremberg trial!
The manner in which social media school chambers have radicalised voters into Qanon militia speaks to a deeper wound and is reminiscent of the way global Muslim youth were radicalised in the 1990s and 2000s thanks to online Jihadist recruitment videos.
Citizens should feel angry and cynical at a system that is rigged in favour of the rich!
The Left should lean into that populism!
We need to focus on how to combat this terrible racist, anti-worker, anti-Treaty, anti-renter, anti-beneficiary, anti-environment Government who are selling out the common good for the interests of their donor friends.
We have to re-establish the egalitarian mission by promoting policy that directly challenges the capitalist status quo in meaningful ways.
Without vision, the Left is lost.
There are 4 magical pillars of the NZ economic ‘success’
1 – Stealing Indigenous land and never paying back the full value.
2 – Selling basic milk powder to China
3 – Selling each other houses and pretending that makes us rich.
4 – Addiction to a low wage economy.
The migration exploitation rules are garbage because NZ loves exploiting migrant labour!
We are addicted to it.
We say locals are too lazy for these jobs when really what we say is locals won’t allow themselves to be exploited as easily as migrant workers.
There is of course a solution here.
Universals Union membership for every migrant worker crossing the border.
That way domestic workers know they are not competing against exploited labour.
That way migrant labour can’t be exploited without the Union stepping.
That way the migrant worker and domestic worker are all protected by the solidarity of the Union.
We don’t want a solution to exploited labour, that’s why Universal Union Membership for migrant workers is ignored and non-solutions like this are promoted.
This Wednesday the CTU are holding hui all over the country to speak out against this Governments attack on worker rights.
We need economic resilience, we need community resilience, we need radical reform to strengthen sustainability.
We need more Left Universalism.
We need to lift the tax yoke off working people, beneficiaries and the middle classes and we need to put it on the Banks, the Corporations, the Billionaires and the mega wealthy.
We need more Democratic Infrastructure, not less!
Why do we need these things?
Because the climate is shutting down and we face a bleak future where Billions will suffer and die thanks to catastrophic climate change.
This change will be forced upon us whether we like it or not.
This demands more connections, more bonds that bind us together to emotionally, socially, economically and politically survive what is coming.
Māori communalism is going to teach us a lot.
Here are some thoughts on what the CTU hui should be considering:
The Right to Strike: A 10 day nation wide national strike would achieve more for working people than a dozen elections. We don’t have the right to strike in this country for God’s sakes, stand on your feet or live on your knees!
Iwi backed new Supermarket: Bring in a 3rd player into the supermarket duopoly that is Iwi backed with a focus on cheap prices for consumers, best prices for producers and high wages and work conditions for workers. Take 30% of the Supermarket Industry by force (allowed under the Commerce Commission powers) and use this as the backbone for a new food security system.
Mārae Civil Defence: Use Marae as the backbone of Civil Defence throughout NZ with resources based there alongside new building grants to strengthen those Marae.
Ministry of Green Works: We need to be able to build our own sustainable infrastructure, we need social housing builds and we need vast upgrading of the existing infrastructure to be adaptable to climate change.
New Mental Health First Responders: A whole new branch of first responders to deal specifically with mental health issues to talk people down and seek help rather than calling then Police and arresting people.
Artist Benefit: As part of a degrowth Capitalism model, pay Artists to make public art, use that art as a means to deal with the wondrous grief caused by the destruction of the planet.
Māori Parliament: An indigenous Parliament that amplifies Māori political voices.
Universal Student Union: Allow Student Unions to be the incubators for tomorrows politicians and stop students simply being cash cows for corporate education.
Universal Migrant Union: Stop migrant worker exploitation with universal student membership.
Retirement Village Unions: These scumbag retirement villages abuse their elderly and sick clients, universal Retirement Village Unions would stop them being exploited.
Pensioner Unions: Give our elderly a voice!
Sugar Tax to fund free dental.
Financial Transaction Tax to target speculators
Free Public Transport to lower emissions and make an impact on the wallets of the poor.
Wealth Tax aimed at the super wealthy
Inheritance Tax only realised after death
First $20 000 tax free for everyone
Lower GST to 10% to take the tax burden off the poor
Nationalise Early Childhood Education to lower the cost for working mothers and fathers
Without vision the Union Movement is dead.
Solidarity Comrades.
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Spoonley is part of the problem.
how so?
Google up his bio, he and Kidman were making New Zealand all about white extremism after the Chch shootings by a foreign terrorist.
A fuckwit academic creating fault lines during peak woke and one of the reasons people lost faith in government.
Very true. Spoonley is openly involved in pro-genocide lobbying, pretending that any criticism of ‘israel’ is antisemitic.
Then you spoil it with that silly graphic.
Capitalism sucks and no one in politics can see passed it. AI will enable something much much better for everyone. There could be financial freedom for all, no corruption, no economic collapses, no mass migration problems, no wars, fast climate action, democracy, and entrepreneurship for those inclined
It can be a way to unite the left and right
We can have all that no bad now. Just don’t take any notice of the human generated news and look at what AI produces.
S u i …!
Let’s embrace the reality of adopting business methods. Get rid of this outdated political system. Have elected competent, experienced and rational leadership from informed people’s vote. and then all set priorities and ensure that basic responsible services continue, enable some pilots to test new procedures or approaches monitor and evaluate them. Set reasonable targets that are checked, enforced. Have evaluation at end of each year.
Adjust positions on a rotation basis so there are no total makeovers, just a few standown each year until the longest serving would be five years or so. A bit like tv reality shows, but done fairly and not on some capricious momentary idea from people who wouldn’t know their A from their E.
Why are you surprised?
The left abandoned the working class abut 30 years ago so the rise in what the left calls ‘populism’ is the natural consequence. Where ‘populism’ really means getting voted into office by a tidal wave of working class votes across race and gender lines.
Key points:
1. The leading lights of the Labour Party are mostly failed teachers and academics. None appear to have done any manual labour or gotten dirt under their fingernails.
2. The Greens are mostly posh private school kids playing at politics and are the beneficiaries of trust funds.
In the US Te Democratic Party is a headless chicken bereft of vision, its leaders are nowhere to be seen. Kyle Kalinsky asks: “Who the hell is leading the Democratic Party right now?
The answer is surprising; Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders has been barnstorming the country, embracing populist issues that have galvanised packed town hall meetings. Hundreds have had to be turned away at the doors and hundreds of thousands have been following the live feed of his town hall meetings in real time.
The Kyle Kalinsky show @0:00
So a point that many people, myself included, have made, is who the hell is leading the Democrats right now?
Like for real, who is their leader?
Stop and think about it, like nobody in their right mind would say, ‘Chuck Schumer’, or ‘Hakeem Jeffries’ or ‘Jerry Connelly’, the 74 year old with terminal esophageal cancer who’s the head of the oversight committee. And so look, it’s a real question.
Is it Kamala Harris? I mean, she was just you know, their standard bearer not that long ago. But where the hell is she now? She disappeared…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD3_ZwzXvgQ
Kyle Kalinsky lays it all out. Bernie Sanders has been taking up the populist issues that people care about, and captured the moment.
Despite his age, despite his being repeatedly rejected and sidelined by the Democratic Party machine, Bernie Sanders has tapped into people’s disillusionment and disappointment with the mainstream politicians and speaks to people’s hopes and fears for a better life for themselves and for their families.
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