No Substance To Her Stardust: Has Jacinda Lost The Magic?
HOW DID IT HAPPEN? Where did she go? The Jacinda Ardern who rocked our world? Where did she lose her sparkle and her stardust? What, or who, took from her the qualities that had so decisively interposed themselves between the centre-left and almost certain defeat?
It used to be said of Jacinda Ardern that if the Labour Party had nothing to say, then she was, indisputably, the best person to say it. And now, assuming the media reports of Sunday’s “All’s Well With The Coalition” exercise are accurate, that emphatically vague Jacinda is back. Poised, articulate, relaxed, witty: oh yes, she was all of those; but when her listeners attempted to recall the substance of her speech there was precious little for memory to work with. It was a tale told by a politician: full of smiles and good intentions; signifying … very little indeed.
Which leaves us to explain the political phenomenon that was “Jacindamania”. Because something happened that day back in August 2017, when Andrew Little stepped down and Jacinda Ardern stepped up. When she strode out to meet the assembled media and began speaking, dozens of jaws dropped open in wonder. It was a stunning performance, and when it was over there wasn’t a soul in the room who didn’t understand that the game had changed; changed utterly; and that an electoral phenomenon had been born.
And, perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, that was enough. After the palpable disappointments of Phil Goff, David Shearer, David Cunliffe and Andrew Little; under whose care the Labour Party appeared to have lost the will to live; Jacinda strobed youth and vitality and a boundless confidence in her party’s ability to “do this”. As to the precise nature of “this”: no one on the centre-left considered it prudent to enquire too closely. It was enough that it wasn’t “that” – the sordid residue of nine years of National Party neglect. A narrow majority of New Zealanders had had enough of “that” – to the point where even an undefined “this” sounded pretty good.
But Jacinda possessed something else: something more than mere youth and vitality and confidence. She possessed that peculiar quality of presenting herself as a safe repository for people’s hopes and dreams. This, the Philosopher’s Stone of politics, allowed Jacinda to transmute the base metal of a Labour Party almost entirely bereft of ideas, into the pure gold of electoral appeal.
Thanks to Jacinda, Labour was able to bulk-up its Party Vote to the point where a three-party government became possible. The sheer elation of, if not victory, then, at least, of avoiding a catastrophic electoral humiliation, allowed Labour to conduct the negotiations with NZ First with a confidence that lasted just long enough to persuade Winston Peters that the promised “transformation” could be delivered. Jacinda had piled his plate high with policies fit for a queen-maker and bade him eat. It was an offer he could not refuse.
The great problem with magical feasts, of course, is that they are weightless and provide no sustenance. NZ First and the Greens may have believed they were being treated to the most splendid meal of their lives, but in the cold light of day, they were still hungry.
The brutal truth was that Labour’s leaders had no firm ideas about what they should do with the power that Jacinda’s electoral sorcery had placed in their hands. For the nine years National was in office they had been challenged repeatedly to identify the one or two policies they would wish to be remembered for. They couldn’t do it. Such energy as the Labour caucus possessed while in opposition was, for nearly a decade, devoted to the task of identifying an electable successor to Helen Clark.
In this bloody “Game of Thrones”, the question of what the victor should do when the power was finally placed in his or her hands was never adequately answered. The question of what he or she would not do, however, was very clearly answered. It was decided (with the Greens) that any future government of the centre-left would not stray too far from the fiscal parameters set by their National predecessors. Accompanying these “Budget Responsibility Rules” were a seemingly never-ending series of working-parties dedicated to coming-up with the policies Labour’s leaders lacked both the imagination and the courage to come up with themselves.
Leonard Cohen, in his poem “God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot”, identifies the essential transience of transformative power:
Though laws were carved in marble
They could not shelter men
Though altars built in parliaments
They could not order men
Police arrested magic and magic went with them
For magic loves the hungry
But magic would not tarry
It moves from arm to arm
It would not stay with them
Magic is afoot
It cannot come to harm
It rests in an empty palm
It spawns in an empty mind
But magic is no instrument
Magic is the end
Use it or lose it, Cohen seems to be saying about the power to change this world we inhabit. Because, if you don’t, then somebody else will feel the weight of it on their palm; the strength of it in their arm; the fire of it in their mind. And the stardust that once was yours will lend substance to another’s determination to “do this”. Leaving you to “do that” in ways which the people who once marvelled at your magic will struggle to remember.
Maybe the Emperor never had any new clothes to begin with and only now is it obvious how naked, empty and bereft of ideas Labour really is? Example, with WWIII on the horizon and threats of nuclear war in Syria this governments response is to passively acquiesce and go along with it. Hope and Change? Nope a sociopathic fraud like Obama which opened the door for the masses to then crave a psychopath promising real change. Except this time instead of Obamas covert use of 4th and 5th generation small nukes on numerous middle eastern countries the USA is going to pull out the big nukes to flatten Syria and anybody else that gets in their way. The Ardern stardust will turn into radioactive fallout dust with liberal amounts for everybody to rejoice in with their share as it falls gently out of the sky.
To the Masked Moa:What a load of rubbish!!
Absolutely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UetDixDdBZo&feature=em-uploademail
So if the Stardust has fallen, how do we describe Bridges and National?
The charismatic leader of a hollow party.
Such a frustrating waste.
Our Obama.
For me, Jacinda never had any magic. At the time of her rise I regarded her as a mediocre player in a game dominated by utterly hopeless players.
Stunning performances in front of crowds are all very well but stunning performances are not a replacement for sound policies, and sound policies is what Jacinda lacks.
What may save Jacinda is the fact that many other parts of the world are going down the drain faster than NZ is.
It’s money they lack.
Most of what is wrong is a result of lack of funding.
It’s quite simple really. It’s no good being a nun holding a piece a piece of gypsophila when the world you walk into is like one of crazed gang members out of it on P. Or going into a ward of massed victims of the most virulent flesh eating disease with half a dozen aspro.
This is the world of dirty politics, desperation politics and dire politics. This is not a world for difference or hope.
Another victory for form over content.
Might well be the metaphor of our times.
http://onceuponatime.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Grail
“Jacindamania” was brought into by people susceptible to the banal. “Lipstick on a pig” sums up Labour policies coming into the election.
Hopefully the government will pass some meaningful legislation, sooner rather than later. We’re all still waiting for a letting fee and foreign buyer ban. Cannabis/drug reform anyone?
People interested in politics are akin to YouTube influencers .. please them and they’ll spread your Gospel, disappoint us and we’ll turn your dreams to shame.
“Jacindamania” = National losing the election, not Labour winning. Be bold with passing policy or you’ll find yourselves back on the opposite side of the House, quick smart!
When Jacinda said “lets do this” I never thought she was referring to anything but what she had been contemplating for the previous few days. Namely should she take on the leadership she had been offered out of the blue , or not. Maybe wait for a bit more experience. It was a very big step up in responsibility. She decided to give it a go.. “let’s do this”.
I don’t believe and never thought that she had or ever claimed to have a set of ideas and innovations outside of those of the senior members of her parliamentary team. She did not and does not intend to be the innovator of policy. She is the spokesperson for the policies (if there are any) of the parliamentary labour party. She is not the party. And she is not the government. It isn’t fair to her to hold her responsible for the inadequacies of the party’s ideas. She could not impose different ideas on them even if she had some.
But though she might have been more pliant than some of her collogues to accommodating Winston’s ideas where they deviated from labour’s , in the end the senior members of her party were never going to be pushed around by him. They are as conservative as you can get.
NZF is a party that has collected around a charismatic leader because of his personality and his ideas. Labour is a party that exists on it’s inertia from personalities that once attracted support who have long ago left the scene. Jacinda has stepped up to be it’s figurehead for now, but she will never own it like Winston owns NZF. She shouldn’t be expected to. It’s still the old white men that control the ship.
D J S
You go with the flow Chris but you’re overstating Jacinda’s decline. I was never a Jacinda fan (I told Little to stay on when LP invited members to comment!) She’s not entirely insubstantial when she confidently takes a stand on protecting the weak among the populace and her own MPs. Some of us object to the neo-liberal aspect of Labour’s policies but that doesn’t worry you. She is in an ABC cabal & her right hand man led the pack against leftie Cunliffe, so despite moves on housing they’re holding back on many promised reforms in order to balance the books. All predictable. However, she has a quick wit, remains personable, never vicious, which is very appealing. I think she remains high in the polls.
Jacinda has now decided that it is more important to help the Iraqi military fight ISIS, that consideration must be given to NZ businesses, that farmers cannot be upset with introducing water levies, that environmental issues are better dealt with by applying a bit of green-washing, and that unions, beneficiaries and others better be more patient, before any significant changes are brought in for their benefit.
Election campaign slogans are easily passed through the lips, but governing over a country and population, where many vested interest holders exist, that is somewhat different and more complex and difficult to do.
OK – so the honeymoon is over.
Business may be grumpy, transNational may be grumpy but –
“Labour is also viewed as the political party that is most capable of managing five of the top six issues facing New Zealand today, especially the issue of healthcare – at 41%, Labour’s ability to manage the issue of healthcare is 19 points ahead of National (22%).”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1809/S00145/new-zealanders-concerns-about-housing-issues-grow.htm
The still birth of the Economics of Hope in New Zealand, killed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hopeless economics naivety, aided and abetted by her neo-liberal cabinet Ministers who are more interested in directing the fiscal power of the nation to feed the profits of the banks and the corporations, and the greed of the 10 percent entttled parasites that infest our community, rather than wiping out the scourge of unemployment (4.5 percent jobless rate, 144,000 Kiwis unemployed, in June 2018), relieving the debt burden of NZ households (91.8 percent of GDP in January 2018), providing FREE tertiary education, providing our hospitals and health boards with the required funding for them to look after our citizens properly, wiping out the shameful homelessness and poverty that still exist in our community.
What a total load of negative bollocks. Why don’t you media hacks actually take a look at the good things the government has done instead of trying to pull a woman down. Jacinda is very popular and is doing an amazing job considering you lot are constantly at her throat.
What a total load of negative bollocks. Why don’t you media hacks actually take a look at the good things the government has done instead of trying to pull a woman down. Jacinda is very popular and is doing an amazing job considering you lot are constantly at her throat.
The best that can be said of Labour is that they’re not National, and the best that can be said of National is that they’re not Labour.
I think Jacinda is holding together this coalition Govt rather well, it is her job to hold the thing together for its full term, its not her job to come up with solutions to every problem this complex disintegrating country and world is throwing at her feet. That is for the rest of the members, the opposition, the public, the interest groups around the country to come up with, put forward debate and implement.
The fact she faces an opposition that has vowed to be nothing but disruptive spoilt self seeking brats refusing to contribute is a minor hurdle. Who can blame National – when they were in Govt they faced an opposition that did very little but sit and sharpen their pencils waiting for the Nats to outstay their welcome. Which of course they did.
I think Labour expected another easy term out of Govt but Jacinda bursting out of the cake being build by The Greens, TOP and NZFirst suddenly flung Labour unexpectedly into the hot seats.
The well trodden path down Neolib Lane towards slashing the environment down, selling citizenship and land overseas and buying fake carbon credits belongs so much to National that only Grant Robinson and a couple of others would go there. So where do Labour go – the workers are in tatters from 40 years of both Govts. The Greens are semi trying to save us AND the planet but everyone knows saving our species is political suicide. A brief look through human history and most people know that saving our planet and saving our species are conflicting and not compatible ideas.
So maybe the Nats are right, cash up what we can and serve the spoils up to the undeserving rich who will sit out with a drink or two on a newly acquired balcony and watch the landscape burn, watch the poor fight amongst themselves as they get closer and closer to the gated community and place bets that they might extinguish themselves before they break in.
And a happy New Year and yes Xmas, unwrapping indestructible plastic in the shape of throwaway toys wrapped in single use biodynamic paper imported from twice around the world.