Thursday 12 October 2006

"...the party is dominated by libertarians."

Here's some good news. A board member of the ACT Party has just resigned because the party, he says, is being "dominated" by its libertarian wing.

My congratulations to that libertarian wing.

Just four more parties to dominate and the job is done.

UPDATE: Hold it! Call off the festivities. ACT member Lindsay Mitchell isn't so sure about that domination, and to be fair if it's true it's still not reflected in policy...

LINKS: ACT and board member part company - NZ Herald [Hat tip David Farrar]

RELATED: Politics-NZ, Politics-ACT

9 comments:

deleted said...

pfft .. if only...

Reminds me of the Delegates at the CIS conference calling them selves libertarians..

Peter Cresswell said...

Haha. Toot true.

But it's a little like alcoholism, isn't it Mike. The important first step is admitting you want to be a libertarian. Everything else after that is just learning. :-)

Berend de Boer said...

If ACT is being dominated by the libertarian wing they better prepare for oblivion.

Your members on average have convinced one other non-member to vote for the party.

What's the target vote next time libertarianz?

Libertyscott said...

What do you propose ACT's philosophy be Berend? National on speed? the new Republicans? Stay out of the boardroom, but keep an eye on people's bedrooms? Libertarianism at a snail's pace? or socialism with free market characteristics (the last mentioned is essentially Roger Douglas).

Anonymous said...

"If ACT is being dominated by the libertarian wing they better prepare for oblivion."

Not at all - this is an excellent sign, along with Hide stating he would go with Labour re tax cuts.

Libz destroyed shareholder value (from around 3000 votes to 900, from memory), not because they were too libertarian, but because they were not libertarian enough.

If the party is not rebranded and the neocon specific tenets removed, it will disappear completely as ACT starts positioning itself in a more transpartisan arena.

Neoconservatism destroys everything it touches.

Berend de Boer said...

mr anonymous, flaggelation always helps. If the gods didn't give you enough votes, it's because you were not pure enough. Start the purification rights.

And the last thing ACT needs is more objectiblivion philosophy. And needs less philosophy, and a bit more pragmatism.

Berend de Boer said...

Grr, were's the edit button. Rights -> rites.

Anonymous said...

anonymous said...
[...and the neocon specific tenets...]

I thought that the term neocon has vanished from PC blog, since only Ruth was using it frequently and now she is banned.

Blair said...

Frankly, if ACT does not embrace pragmatic libertarianism, what is the point of its existence?

If you want to join a conservative party, there are already four out there with parliamentary representation: United Future, New Zealand First, the Progressives, and National. It's a crowded market out there on the right. ACT must move in a libertarian direction if it is to survive.

And Berend, you know as well as I do that the Libertarianz vote is no indication of the support classical liberalism enjoys in this country. A soft libertarian party with its shit together could take 10% of the vote in this country quite easily. Money and a guarantee that the vote is not wasted makes all the difference, and if ACT plays its cards right, it will have those in 2008.