Post
How can we present a fair picture of what's changed, for better and for worse, since the 2023 election? Or, is that the wrong question? Maybe people can see for themselves that a lot of things are getting worse, but they'll take some convincing that a change of government would make any difference.
If so, it's on the opposition parties to present a vision for the long term, and a plan for starting to turn things around in the short term.
@strypey you wouldn't think it would be terribly difficult. Tax the rich to pay for essential services for everyone.
@zebratale
> Tax the rich to pay for essential services for everyone
Seems like a no-brainer, I know. But if it was the Greens and TPM would have become the government in 2023. The right seem to win by distracting some people from their economic needs with Culture War noise. While convincing others that taxing the rich somehow hurts The Economy TM (a financialised abstraction where growth means number-go-up, not more people getting access to more useful stuff).
How do we counter this?
@strypey yeah all that bs about more money in your back pocket and really easy to frame a tax increase as taking your hard earned money and giving it to bludgers, tax the rich and they will leave the country, etc. The Mowbray's are NZ rich listers but their company is registered in Hong Kong so they don't pay tax here anyway. The left need Labour to actually step up and call bs on NAct's narrative but their tax policy is so watered down it's not going to provide the financial base for the public services that need funding.
@zebratale
> The left need Labour to actually step up
This has been a problem since the 1980s, although each Labour-led government post-1980s has been a bit less pissweak that the previous. We expect right-wing parties to be fraudulent mercenaries. But it's a serious problem when a major party framed by news media as "centre-left" don't call them on it and offer something better.
See the quote I posted yesterday about politicians vs. "statesmen" (statespeople?);
@strypey completely agree. Have to say the Greens are the only party in parliament that actually have a vision and plan. I'm so over the sniping, the shifting of blame, Seymour's absolute focus on the transfer of funds from public purse to private sponsors, the vote buying. Unfortunately the Greens have a credibility problem, not because they lack integrity or competence, but because they're consistently framed as loonies. Labour currently is just !National, which is kind of working because National are so awful.
@zebratale
> the Greens are the only party in parliament that actually have a vision and plan
TPM do too.
> the Greens have a credibility problem, not because they lack integrity or competence, but because they're consistently framed as loonies
... and their MPs occasionally behave in ways that feed into that narrative, which doesn't help;
https://strypey.dreamwidth.org/6069.html
Same with TPM of late.
A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate
