"All political careers end in failure ... " [updated]
"All political careers end in failure ... 'that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.' ...
"Jacinda Ardern ... came in with great promises. Her Government would be kind, open and transparent, the housing crisis would be fixed, climate change solved in 'her generation’s nuclear-free moment,' and child poverty dealt with.
"Sadly, none of her promises came true. Some of them now seem ironic.
"I’ve never understood why people hated Ardern.... she is not a bad person, in fact a very good person who was overwhelmed by the nature of politics and human affairs.... [But] New Zealand needs a practical approach to governing, rather than a marketing approach....
"Her empathy ... made her an international superstar. While the rest of the world was working out how the most powerful country picked Donald Trump’s nasty divisiveness, Jacinda gave hope....
"The problem [however] is marketing over substance.... Having the Government build homes was never going to solve the underlying problem.... Child poverty did reduce ... but benefit dependency is up.... [And] the 'nuclear-free moment' [is] powered by Indonesian coal.... Again, the difference between sounding good and doing good.
"New Zealand is a less united place today.... If Labour had one founding value everyone should support, it was universal human rights and liberal democracy. Now the Government has spent six years telling New Zealanders that their race defines their role in public affairs ...
"All political careers end in failure, maybe. But Jacinda’s unique combination of superhuman emotional intelligence and abysmal practical problem-solving brought failure on herself."
~ Brooke van Velden, from her op-ed 'Jacinda Ardern’s political ‘failure’ self-inflicted'
UPDATE: "[I]f catastrophes were the making of Jacinda's career as prime minister, they were also the breaking of it... Once the disaster management is accounted for, there are no major lasting achievements for which her government will be cited in the history books."
~ Grant Duncan, from his op-ed 'Politics of Kindness in Unkind Times: Looking back at Jacinda Ardern's time as PM'
4 comments:
Would have been nice if she attributed her phrase
All political careers end in failure
to Enoch Powell
@oneblokesview: She did. I excised it.
Only a little of what Brooke has written here makes any sense. What doesn’t make sense includes:
“Sadly, none of her promises came true”
“Sadly?” Are we meant to be rooting for government efficiency at delivering large-scale welfare programs?
“I’ve never understood why people hated Ardern .... she is not a bad person, in fact a very good person”
Really? She is an avowed socialist leader (i.e., someone who does not recognize property rights) who believes words people might find offensive can be no less of a threat than bullets and bombs and so wants to outlaw those words, who has spent the last six years enabling the retribalisation of NZ such that we now have the real makings of an ethno-state, who took on more national debt and fuelled more inflation than any prime minister since Muldoon, and who gleefully admitted to wanting to take away peoples’ rights based on their vaccination status, for a virus that has since proven to be no worse than the flu. And she is an out and out liar to boot. Just what does it take to qualify as a bad person?
“Jacinda gave hope….”
Only to those who who do not understand that big government is the problem, not the solution.
“If Labour had one founding value everyone should support, it was universal human rights”
I assume by this she is referring to the printing press “rights” of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, many of which necessitate violating authentic rights.
I also note that in the NZ Herald article Brooke wrote, “Then came a classic Ardern foible. When she first led Labour, she was wrapped in rapturous support. She announced a capital gains tax, then spent two years walking it back.” Are we meant to understand that not having proceeded with the CGT was a foible?
Truly some of the worst writing from an ACT MP I have read. Right up there with "Free speech is not a right".
Yes, everything, and everyone is so bad. I think we should give up. Or if we don’t give up, we should just criticise, because that’s going to encourage positive change!
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