A Feminist adjustment in New Zealand Election
Old sayings are often a reflection of a different era and in effect become modern day myths. One such saying that comes to mind is that men only vote for their wallet. When they had families to support they may have been more inclined to do so, but this election has put the saying firmly in the myth category.
The National Party has seen an impressive win under our current electoral system (similar to the German MMP system); did men go running to National because of their wallets? No, of course they didn’t, Labour was offering a $2.00 an hour increase in the minimum wage.
Did men abandon Labour? Yes, of course they did as was discussed in NZ Labour and the feminist election campaign; even they admit it.
Was that enough to give National such a resounding success or is there more to it than that?
When a populace is frightened, they look for security, safety, and they look for leadership – it is instinctive in men. It has happened before and can be seen in situations like the 1951 waterfront dispute (wharf riots).
What scared us?
It started with Labour leader David Cunliffe apologising for being a man, and Andrew Little trotting out a policy to increase rape convictions. But before that, Labour had dumped their previous leader David Shearer for being a bit soft, too much of a nice guy. He may have appeared that way but he wasn’t being soft on his party and the feminists turned on him because they couldn’t get their own way, and replaced him with someone they could control. (Cunliffe and his cuties)
Feminism reversed the dynamics of a political party, thinking that men wouldn’t see what was going on – Cunliffe will never be prime minister as a result.
Something else happened and the irony is that it was the Big German, Kim Dotcom, and although he understands the MMP system, he doesn’t understand human nature. When Laila Harre stepped onto the stage as The Internet Party leader and said I’m here for women, that put them right down there with Labour.
Then the whole left wing turned into a side show. The Greens went down the Rape Culture track, Nicky Hager dropped in for his usual election-book-sale with ‘Dirty Politics’, and Kim Dotcom tried to tip over a legitimate government with his ‘moment of truth’.
Of course we were looking for leadership and stability – who the hell would want an acidic combination of left wing lunatics in government – if men went to National, it certainly wasn’t for policy or money, it was fear of instability, fear of feminist policy, and the lesser of our two evils.
It shouldn’t have been that way, our election was stolen from us. It was an unsavoury mess, that didn’t give us a government of choice but a government by default.
This is what happens when men are not represented in the policies of the left wing.
There have been some casualties victims, (feminists call them victims) not the least of which is Hone Harawira. We watched him let himself be shut down and ridiculed by the feminists in the newly formed Internet-Mana alliance. We discussed that here in A feminist Party.
Hone’s lost his electorate seat and his party’s representation in parliament, but the outcome was fairly predictable before yesterday.
It’s hurt women too – next time someone complains about the lack of women in parliament, remind them that this little game knocked three current and experienced women MPs off the Labour Party list. Yes, women pay a price for Red Fem poltics too.
When you look at the male dynamics in this election, and the feminist antics in this election, you see a different picture.
It started with Cunliffe apologising for being a man and ended with Kim Dotcom apologising for being a silly girl.
That’s not the end of it – there is another place the male vote from Labour headed to – NZ First.
The ground shifted and the old cowboy of New Zealand politics, Winston Peters (NZ First Party leader) was quick to spot the gap. He said this morning that NZ First would be leading the opposition. That’s a big call to say he’s taking over the historic position of the Labour Party.
If NZ First is going to do that, they will have to represent men or they will do nothing but lead a lame duck to the next election.
If the Jones Boy comes back into politics don’t be surprised to see him pop up in New Zealand First.
Is NZ First the new left – the go-to party for men?
Is Labour now the feminist relic of NZ politics?
Has the tide gone out on feminism in New Zealand?
Is this a big change in New Zealand politics – a change for the better for men – what do you think?
Is Labour now the feminist relic of NZ politics?
Families (and men in particular) have a very hard time forgetting precisely what was done to them under the Labour regime. No one in New Zealand can be “blamed” for not supporting a party where the Labour government attempted to control every aspect of Kiwi’s lives. Worse; Labour have left us a legacy of an extremely dumbed down education system; unfortunately the “silly women” that still infest that education system are not done with the future of our children yet. But they will be stopped; charter schools will see to that; and hopefully very, very soon.
Labour infected our children with lice from CYFS. CYFS were on a mission to destroy good families and almost totally wrecked children’s trust in adults as a result. Sadly the police became the paramilitary arm of CYFS and they too are now treated with suspicion rather than respect.
Labour will be long remembered as the party that instilled fear in families and injected confrontation into communities. Those scars take decades to heal; scars so deep that I think Labour are completely irrelevant now; and fortunately so do many other good New Zealanders.
Comment by Bruce S — Sun 21st September 2014 @ 2:44 pm
This is one of your best posts yet Downunder.
I don’t see Winston Peters as the future leader of NZ’s centre-left, he’s the wrong generation. However if he retires and Ron Mark was to lead NZ First it might be a different story. Mark hasn’t exhibited any feminist tendencies that I know of, and he seems to be a competent leader.
I don’t think you can count Labour out just yet though. For all their recent failures, they have a long history and a well-organised machine. If they were to somehow limit the influence of the feminists, the unions and the extreme left and move back towards the mainstream of NZ values we might well see another Labour government in the future.
Maybe one lead by Kelvin Davis? Watch him interviewed on Q+A this morning.
The Greens did a lot worse than I expected. If they concentrated more on core environmental issues and dropped the Marxist social agenda they could conceivably support both centre-left and centre-right parties. Being part of government instead of stuck perpetually in opposition might give them the ability to actually implement some useful policy.
No, I don’t see any signs that the feminist tide has turned just yet. Remember it wasn’t just Labour governments who passed NZ’s anti-male legislation.
Do I think things will be better for men? Nope, not significantly, not with this government.
Comment by JohnPotter — Sun 21st September 2014 @ 4:22 pm
Labour – 32 parliamentary seats – 27 electorate seats (6 Maori seats) and 5 list seats.
Labour won the party vote in only five of the 64 general electorates – Dunedin North, Kelston, Mangere, Manukau East, Manurewa.
When Kelvin Davis came back on the scene after the departure of the Jones Boy, he was straight into the violence against women party line, and even on election night, high lighted the same point.
As a Northland MP, he is also in one of the areas in the country that has a very high (possibly the highest) women-heavy gender disparity, at 100:87.
But at least he has a sense of humour “Internet-Mana is all steam and no hangi”.
Comment by Downunder — Sun 21st September 2014 @ 5:43 pm
Good analysis Downunder. It’s important that the gender political dynamics involved in this election are discussed and publicized as you have done. Our mainstream media are unlikely to acknowledge the issue, still believing that they can’t afford to publish anything that feminists might disapprove of.
Comment by Man X Norton — Mon 22nd September 2014 @ 7:13 am
Can’t say I agree with a lot of what you say but you are on the money about Labour being too feminist, as well as too minority focused. Their vote among men is very weak and speaking personally I didn’t vote for them in part because turkeys with any sense don’t vote for xmas!
But remember who brought in the child support act 1993 – clue, it wasn’t Labour – and realise that men’s rights have few friends anywhere in parliament.
Comment by Daniel — Mon 22nd September 2014 @ 8:52 am
I too think this is good and I like what John Potter said.
Just to add to this generation idea, there was an older lady where my family voted and when they handed her the voting paper, she said loudly, “I don’t know who to vote for. Who do I vote for?” Whether that actually is a generational thing, I don’t know. It got one of my son’s thinking.
I am trying to tell a friend who can’t understand how National won that people aren’t voting National in, they are keeping Labour out, not because they are feminists, IMO, but because they are a group of radical socialists.
I still see New Zealand as a small clicky country but then I am way more involved in the 60% (IMO) of people in NZ who are born here. Auckland is a multicultural area IMO, and I call the hospitals the “United Nations”, lol.
I don’t think the people were born elsewhere understand where Labour is coming from when they say National is corrupt and National has taken more rights away than any other previous government. Heck, many non New Zealanders think NZ is way better than the country they came from, full stop, even with the dirty politics.
I also don’t think the youngest generation of voters understand the ideologies. Even though free travel was offered to students, there was a lot of talk pro National amongst students. Perhaps that was, like Downunder brings up, about security while young ones think they can do anything, so going in the right direction makes sense to them, IMO.
Comment by julie — Mon 22nd September 2014 @ 8:56 am
Oh dear, I was rushing cause the phone was ringing. The caseload for CYFs won’t change under this government either, lol.
That’s meant to say,
I still see New Zealand as a small clicky country but then I am way more involved in the 60% (IMO) of people in NZ who are born ELSEWHERE.
………..
I think the pro man thing depends on where you stand. I find this government pro men but here’s another 3 years for people to work on the issue.
Have a great week, y’all.
Comment by julie — Mon 22nd September 2014 @ 9:14 am
@John Potter – I see several reasons for the Green failure.
1. The fear factor discussed in the post. A vote for the Greens would have been a vote for Cunliffe and Labour. Middle aged women, even traditional right wingers will vote Green – they like the idea of a bit of social conscience in parliament – but only to the extent that it doesn’t over shadow their main political position.
2. Labour didn’t fire. As the main political party on the left, which was polling down hill all the way to the election, left Green voters would have not bothered. Greens weren’t going to be in Government.
3. Because Labour was doing so bad, and it still looked like National was going to need a partner the Greens distanced themselves from Labour and started making noises about Winston not being the only party that could work with National – that would have alienated some left wing voters. Look what has happened to the Maori party – it’s cost them two Maori seats this time around.
4. The Greens too, need to keep their feminist element under control, or they risk ending up going down the same path as Labour – I don’t think Jan Logie and the Rape Culture brigade are a big asset.
Realistically the Greens could have got 15%, there’s a million people out there that didn’t vote.
What I see happening over the next two years is Labour, Greens and NZ First going head on for the main opposition position. Labour has sunk so low they have put that at risk.
This to a certain extent is already happening, anyway. There has been times during the last three years that the media were going to the Greens for first comment because Labour didn’t have the responses up front.
Doesn’t help that Cunliffe looks like he can’t open his mouth without a cue card.
A lot could happen in the next three years, and a King maker position for the Greens could be a good option next time around.
Regardless there won’t be another left wing Government until there is a stable party with credible leadership that voters believe can run the country, and Labour has got a long way to go to get that back – they’ve been alienating anyone that won’t accept their feminist doctrine since Helen Clark first came to power in 1999.
That’s why there’s such a big hole on the left.
There was some noise a few months back about another men’s based party. I said then, don’t even think about it, go join NZ First, I think we are going to see an opportunity open up there.
Comment by Downunder — Mon 22nd September 2014 @ 1:36 pm
I don’t like Labour. I don’t really like National either. Don’t vote, I say – you’ll only encourage them! Oh and Kim DotCom is a big bad political joke.
However, I sincerely hope Peter Dunne’s CS tax changes are fully implemented next April. It’s a small thing, but let’s look at this rationally:
(1) Shared Care provisions kick in at about 28% of annual nights.
Sure, mothers will have more excusesto limit more severely how many nights the kids stay at their dad’s – but lets face it – those mothers are probably already severely limiting the kid’s full parentage experience.
(2) Mother’s income (if working) is taken into account.
Sure, mother, if not (paid) working will have even less incentive to go find work – but let’s face it – those mothers will not go out (paid) working given any excuse.
(3) Family Court changes. OK, these are probably a bad move – we would all agree to keep snivelling lawyers off the gravy train – but I suspect aggrieved mothers will simply find another way of dragging things out and bankrupting the fathers.
So all in all, Peter Dunne may have achieved one thing in his 30 going on 33 years in office.
As for the rest of those ‘dirty’ politicians: I’ve said it before, basically no party had any useful offering for men, esp. white middle class men, in their election bribes.
Comment by OMG! Youo're *$%&^)&(* — Mon 22nd September 2014 @ 5:55 pm
The law of averages suggest that had the million non-voters voted, the extra votes would have split across all parties more or less in proportion to all actual votes.
Else, most non-voters will likely fall into one of two camps:
(1) didn’t vote because didn’t feel strongly enough to vote (i.e. happy with the status-quo); or
(2) didn’t vote because they felt so disenfranchised, that anything they voted would not be heard.
The first, if they voted, would probably favour National as incumbents.
The second, would probably oppose the incumbents.
The million could as easily favour the Greens, and increase their percentage of votes; or could as easily favour National, and in fact reduce the percentage of Green votes. They could (given it seems well established that younger people are less likely to vote) have favoured InternetMana as a protest vote, and seen them cross the 5% threshold or worse.
Given no one will know with certainly which is the case, it would not be wise to assume.
Comment by OMG! Youo're *$%&^)&(* — Mon 22nd September 2014 @ 6:03 pm
With the Greens, they struggle to be a complete political party, more like a sophisticated pressure group and they attract those people that are not
People who are politically aware but require a particular set of circumstances to vote.
Comment by Downunder — Mon 22nd September 2014 @ 7:15 pm
Wishing the new Child Tax reigeme upon yourself is not something I would recommend. Its a clone of the Aussie scheme. Come April next year there will be a lot of shell shocked child tax payers.
Regards
Scrap
Comment by Scrap_The_CSA — Tue 23rd September 2014 @ 5:30 pm
Isn’t it a little bit interesting that Mana with two feminists at the helm, FAILED.
Not saying that was why, but interesting.
Comment by The man in Absentia — Tue 14th October 2014 @ 5:06 pm
When I saw today that Nicky Hager had received an apology and compensation from the police it reminded me of the political mess back here.
Comment by Downunder — Tue 12th June 2018 @ 11:21 am
Did the Feminists spot the danger in NZ FIRST and cut it off?
NZ First didn’t look for the male base we talked about?
Winston was happy at the prospect of leading the Lame Duck into Government?
Are we any better off after the child support changes Scrap_the_CSA mentioned?
Comment by Downunder — Tue 12th June 2018 @ 11:42 am