GUEST BLOG: John Stroh – Pragmatic Politics

Next Tuesday, 14th March the TOP party is holding a meeting to introduce itself to Christchurch. The meeting is at 5:30pm in the Phillip Carter Family Concert Hall, 156 Armagh Street.

I like TOP’s pragmatic approach, the policy focus, the well researched rationale and the core values that sit behind the vision of TOP. The Education policy is no exception. What I feel may be missing, however, is an overarching statement of principle that is easily understood by a voting public. It will take time to absorb the mostly inevitable changes required to constructively participate in a deliberative democracy.

I am developing more and more dislike of our personality politics and the kind of class-conscious elitism that comes in the guise of most, if not all, “isms” that drive our traditional political parties in New Zealand.

Surely there is one guiding social principle that a majority in New Zealand will subscribe to, now and in a more mature deliberative democracy of the future: ‘cohesive community’ at all levels of society.

In the Netherlands’ Green leader, Jesse Klaver, has quadrupled his party’s polling in a few months on the back of a simple tactical formula: Out would go the old “holy trinity” of economic growth, the market and the rollback of the state, and in would come empathy, economic equality and protection of the climate.He wants to fight inequality and create a more equal society. But the nature of the inequality is different in Holland. But there is a common thread: the wish to reinvigorate social cohesion, inter-connectedness, community spirit.

The ongoing, largely inane, laughable political charades in the U.S. are an example of what can happen when a political system is based on confrontational and largely thoughtless personality politics. Society goes haywire and succumbs to primitive patterns of social behaviour.

In simple language, our political activity should focus on creating balance in society and the cohesion of diverse interests within the Community. That does not mean leveling to a lowest common denominator and it does require a willingness to not only tolerate but to support healthy diversity across our communities. We need to urgently pursue ways of devolving political responsibilities and developing ways of introducing accountability at a local community level.

We have so much going for us and are fortunate to be geographically remote from the mayhem. I sincerely believe that TOP’s policies can make New Zealand an even better country to live in.

About John Stroh
Following a professional and management career with IBM in New Zealand and overseas, John owned and managed small companies in IT, niche market food exports to Japan and business consultancy. After his first wife, Annie, died in 2010, John ‘retired’ and spent several years in the remote outer Sounds. Now a Gold Card holder, he has remarried, has a husband & wife landscaping business and lives in an old farm homestead near Christchurch.