Jordan Carter has a guest post on policy progress that is well worth reading and thinking about.
After thirty years of neo-liberal ascendancy, the centre right is perhaps moving back to its roots.
One of the delightful but frustrating things about activists on the moderate left of politics is their general certainty about their opponents. There is a claim you will hear with great frequency whenever hanging around with lefties, and it goes something like this:
“They’re just a bunch of neo-liberals. They just want to cut taxes, slice the state, make society more unfair, stuff the economy…” – and so it goes. The further left you go, or the later at night the discussion is happening, the more charged the claims tend to get.
Allow me to make two claims* that are designed to get you thinking:
- This view is hardly surprising, because it reflects the recent past.
- This view is irrelevant to understanding the centre right today or in the future, for they have changed.
Interesting comments
no, they are still inherently evil.
Gosh darn it if the Right is evolving (heh devolving) where is the development of the Progressive Left in politics. My hope is with Labour on this.
I read it and agreed with him in some respects and not in others. That said, I do agree with his conclusion – that the left need to stop railing at the right and sort out their own position. It is true that the right has wrested the basic consensus from the left – Muldoon did not dismantle the welfare state and no one who embraced the third way dismantled the central planks of the neo-liberal economic model, which is not to say that Labour did not make serious inroads on behalf of the people during their last time in office. I do not however agree that “The right are now the moderate establishment, defending a settlement that is defined by their victory over the left.” Their victory is accompanied by too much ongoing and inevitable unease – the high crime rate, low home-ownership, the numbers treading water and uncertain about their futures – to ever be complete. As a result they never feel free to abandon the campaign mode.
The right haven’t changed, they are just spinning more.
Point 1)- recent history being the last 25 years? Certainly is if you consider the monetarist policy part of the neo-liberal paradigm.
Point 2) Neo-Ultra Conservative direction perhaps entrenched by pandering to the middle.
The Law Commission review on the Misuse of Drugs Act will be amusing; Simon Power getting all righteous and red faced “not on my watch” will be good for a laugh. Nothing will change despite the evidence that it should. PUT THEM IN PRISON will remain supreme.
Dear Lord an admission of possible error in outlook from Trevor..? My eyes..! They cannot believe..!
I think this post is absolutely right, I’ll likely be voting for Labour at the next election (depending on transport policy) but I think the accusations of being a neo-liberal scumbag for suggesting some so called “right” economic ideas could better help the average joe show a certain mindset in the average “left” poster on the board – that anything “right” must be instantly attacked as the “rich” oppressing the “poor”…
The good motivations of most “right”ies can be well demonstrated by Gareth Morgan… Just have to worry about the authoratarians ones that get into politics (Judith Collins/Simon Power, hell most of their front bench)…
Olwyn said:
^+1
My fear is that Labour decides that it can win more votes by edging to the Right to sit (minutely) Left of National, instead of creating a true progressive enterprise.
“Muldoon did not dismantle the welfare state” – far from it, he embraced it. The interesting things to me are that the nats felt they needed to drift to the left, maybe even slightly left of centre, to gain the middle ground voters required to regain power. Doesn’t that suggest an overall leaning to the left (if only slightly) of NZ now, as opposed to the tendency toward conservationism 30+ years ago?
By “sorting out our own position” I did not mean to imply that this should be done by edging toward the right. Rather I assumed Jordan’s own paragraph:
“A new project is required. It’s a politics that puts human development and environmental sustainability at the heart of its approach; that is radically democratic not command-and-control; that tackles the huge negative costs of massive inequality that arise from the changes of the past thirty years; and that connects with the desire that almost everyone has to get ahead in life and make the best of things for themselves and their families.”
@Tracey, IMO of course, NZ is largely still very socialistic… Many people would love to go back to 1983… 30 years ago both National and Labour were “left” parties economically and had been since Seddon introduced state housing in the 1890’s, maybe even since Vogel’s big spend up in the 1870’s…
Socially we may be a lot more liberal than 30 years ago but historically I think we have always been a bit ahead of the curve in progressive terms…
I think many people forget or simply arent aware of the amazing history of NZ in terms of world firsts with respect to so called socialist ideals.
40 hour week, 5 day week
ACC
Health & Safety initiatives
Housing
Health
work conditions
votes for women
and so on… I do think we need to dispense with labels, for example alot of stuff I see derided as being “socialist” is about caring about people.
We need to pursue, as we have in th epast a vision of economic prosperity that is about more than just profit/loss red/black books etc… it has to be a mixture, IMO< of people, environment and money in no particular order in no particular hierarchy. To do this people have to begin opening their minds to NEW ways to look at and approach things.
Gross national Happiness sounds absurd, yet when asked the majority of people put being happy at the top of their desired outcomes in life…so hwo do we achieve that?
Placing a value of unpaid work… how would our mindsets need to shift, and would shift (some) if we did that.
Change is scary to most people, and most will spend more energy avoiding change than facing it and moving through it.
Those, to me are the battles, not imports versus exports, those are the results of initiatives and plans and ought not be the ends in themselves.
People are about the loss their ability to resisit change unless they want to be destitute:
- The internet is growing exponentially (it’s not just porn and gambling anymore)
- Moore’s law is doubling computing power every few years
- Moore’s law also applies to fibre optic cable (except it’s ability to carry data is doubling every 9 months..!)
- Oil will reach a terminal decline rate of 3% a year within the next 20 years…
- Global pollution is approaching critical mass
Add it up, it doesn’t equal steadiness…
“My fear is that Labour decides that it can win more votes by edging to the Right to sit (minutely) Left of National, instead of creating a true progressive enterprise.”
With the calibre of the 2008 intake of new Labour MPs, I don’t think there is much chance of that happening Loota. It may take another term in opposition to complete the transition to more progressive-type policies but it will happen. In the meantime such a debate as this is tremendous and exciting. I hope there will be more posts over the next few months.
JMH
I agree our current education, and the direction of this Government for education is not for change, it’s not about instilling in kids the ability to create, to innovate to be flexible to adapt, it’s about a formula, decades old, that will not do what the elders want it to do. Of course some will thrive, and some will adapt but in spite of the system not because of it. The world is constantly changing and faster than ever before… but not our education system
@Tracey: It’s safe to assume that keeping-up-with-the-Joneses materialistic crassness is a major component of the Status Quo. Something that would be very difficult to fix with legislation. If anything, the only quick remedy would probably be from Iceland.
What does a leftie believe in actually, that a rightie doesnt I wonder?
Anne – thanks, you’ve helped reassure me (a bit anyways!)
Add to that the 2005 intake and the future is very bright for Labour Loota.
Heheheh well I joined the Labour party early last year so I’ll count myself in the new intake too
Spud ! !
Deleted
eek.. hope Trevor’s out tonight.
Busted Trevor
Darn,
, I didn’t even get to read what Anne said, 
Superb blog post Jordan