Trump Tower. Photo: Carlos Herrero, Pexels.com
Why is Trump so popular?
Mike Keir
I see a lot of debate around this issue, but not of lot of sensible answers. By rights he should be unelectable, although big egos do have a certain attraction for some, possibly it is the unbridled confidence. There is such a thing as the Trump effect, the mental health benefits of complimenting yourself, something Kiwis are not great at.
In my view the actual reason he will probably win the next US presidential election is that his opposition is so bad. People would rather have a selfish, ego maniac in charge because they know what they are getting. In all her hand wringing analysis of why she lost to him the first time never once did Hilary Clinton look at herself and the lack of trust her and her government engendered.
Photo: Elena, Pixels.com
Trump will at least stop the war in Ukraine, a meat grinder of a war that is going nowhere and probably carry on for years at huge cost in human life and money. The US is doing very well out of this war, for one they are now supplying Germany with gas at very good prices, gas the Russians used to supply.
Chris Hipkins
We saw a similar thing happen in in last year’s election here. Labour were tossed out for incompetence. Hipkins, who oversaw a lot of that incompetence is still there. At least Ardern saw the writing on the wall.
Further evidence of the voting public’s intelligence was that National, who should have walked into government with a majority, managed to come up with a three way tie instead. This was purely as a result of the level of trust in Luxon. He could not manage to say anything credible and we watched his majority slip away. Seymour made a similar mistake by focusing on NZ First and Peters, instead of sticking to his message of cutting the regulation which has turned this country into an inefficient basket case.
Case in point, the recently announced Piarere roundabout at a cost of $43.5 million – almost 10 times the cost of a roundabout I built on the SH1/SH5 intersection 1km south of Piarere in 2014. It is still working well and there have been no serious or fatal crashes.
Traffic holdups at Piarere
Now Luxon is on Winston’s leash and just seems happy to be there regardless. Sad though all this is, at least it is heartening to see the electorate is not taken in by this sham.
One model of successful democracy in action is called deliberative democracy where random groups are chosen to make decisions. They are given relevant information and deliberate to come to agreement. This form of governance is close to the original model of democracy and has been shown to provide good outcomes as those involved have no vested interests. We need to do something different – what we are doing is not working.
This all leads into the question: why is the electorate so uninterested in local body elections?
