The Left have to embrace populism in an age of Trump Culture Wars

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.

 

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