In partisan democratic systems there usually seem to end up being two major political parties - a moderately conservative one and a moderately progressive one. And it has always seemed obvious to me that if you’re one of those parties, you want to control the centre ground. The left and the right are slim pickings for minor parties, because most voters are somewhere in the middle. To stay in power, you try to engineer things so that you look like the moderate one, and the other side looks dangerously extreme.
It surprises me when I find that politicians don’t seem to share this perception. For example, at the moment the National Party, traditionally moderate conservatives, are polling poorly compared with the Labour government. The natural response ought to be to build an image of the government as dangerously radical, and themselves as stable middle-of-the-road dependable types. They had a good leader for this job, a young Southland farmer named Bill English, whom the public seem to see as a decent, amiable sort of person who isn’t likely to make any sudden movements.
But instead they’ve unceremoniously dumped Bill and replaced him with a first-term MP named Don Brash. The general public know Don as the guy whose signature is on our money, because he used to be the governor of the Reserve Bank. He’s associated strongly with the harsh policies of the previous National government. The one that the public voted out in favour of Labour a couple of elections back. Instead of controlling the centre ground, they look to be heading off to the right. Which as far as I can see doesn’t help them a bit. I think they’re on the proverbial hiding for nothing.
Long white cloud in the dead skies. Time will come when it happens to you. We won’t see it in our town. Small events don’t get on the news.
Letter From L. A., Chris Knox