Young progressives, I’m sorry to tell you that you have lost a father figure this week. A father of your movement Chris Skytrotter was killed by an evil turncoat known as Darth Boomer.
Okay, okay, spoiler alert, skip to the end, Skytrotter is Darth Boomer. The real question is how did the progressive movement lose one of its best to the dark side? Thankfully we don’t need 3 prequels and a really gloopy love story to find out.
He started off such a promising young progressive commentator, fighting for a progressive, Scandinavian style democracy in New Zealand. But as time has gone on, Trotter like many baby boomers appears to have become corrupted by the dark side. He is now strangely conservative, desperate to protect the status quo. Why?
It is hard to tell exactly what Trotter is arguing, as it is mostly a ranting ad hominem attack rather than a discussion of ideas. He tries to portray Gareth as being a neoliberal to the right of ACT, but if he has actually looked at the policies then he clearly doesn’t know what he is talking about or understand the realities of the modern economy.
But occasionally he cobbles a coherent sentence together. He argues that because Key has done nothing, we are currently living in the New Zealand Clark and Cullen would have wanted. Nothing to see here, nothing to change. We should be happy and grateful.
Never mind the growing gap between rich and poor. The introduction of Working for Families by Clark and Cullen only slowed that, but Key’s refusal to control the property rort has opened it even wider. Never mind the growing numbers of struggling families, and children falling behind due to poor health, education or housing. Why give money to struggling families with young kiddies; Trotter is too worried about keeping his fat NZ Super check to do that.
And housing? Sure it is unaffordable, trapping young people out of the market. But heaven forbid someone wants to take away the gravy train of unearned capital gains. Trotter is starting to sound like he is blue through and through.
So what happened? We need to remember that Trotter is a baby boomer. He started out with ideals but his generation has benefitted from rising house prices, environmental destruction and cushy Super. It is hard to be progressive when you are on the side of the winners. He doesn’t care that the status quo is unaffordable and unsustainable.
The thing is that Trotter was not alone in the list of old progressives turning his back on progress. There are plenty of others, like Auckland Council’s Mike Lee who opposed the Unitary Plan to chase the votes of the NIMBY baby boomers. In fact, the core supporters of the Old Left look like Trotter and Lee, so they won’t be shaking up the status quo any time soon.
Both the major political parties know which side their bread is buttered on, and won’t think to question the Baby Boomer Empire for fear of losing their votes. National and Labour should get over this pretence of differences and come together in a Grand Baby Boomer Cartel, I mean Coalition.
Which in reality, is what we have had for 30 years. Trotter once railed against this cartel, but now he takes comfort in it, knowing it buffers him from scary changes and protects his interests. No wonder the young feel abandoned by the Left and are disengaging from politics.
So what do we learn from this, kids? The first is that if you are lucky to find yourself on the side of the winners, check to make sure you haven’t crossed to the dark side. The second is that the issues are no longer a matter of Left and Right, the dividing line is old and young. If young people want a fair go then they have to cast aside all the political choices the Establishment Empire is throwing up. Across the spectrum from Trotter and Co to Brash and Co – they are out to screw you and screw you properly.
Geoff Simmons
TOP Chief of Staff
