Who's to Blame for the Government?
It is people; It is people; It is the people that voted for them.
I saw no evil when I looked into your eyes
I heard no evil while you told me all those lies
I spoke no evil when I called out your name
Look at us now, baby
Who’s to blame?
Lyrics: Hemberger, Hemberger, Mayo, Rasero
Today’s newsletter is a bit of a rant; some of you might agree with it—depending on your mood of the moment—whereas others might say, Chill out, Nick. Live and let live; you can’t hold half the population accountable for this government's actions.
Perhaps you’re right. Anyway, with that disclaimer out of the way, on with the rant…
Why do/did people support this government?
Do you ever shake your head in wonder as you look at the latest serving of manure du jour and ask yourself - who voted for this shit? And more to the point, and in the name of all that is holy, why?
Why would any seemingly intelligent and/or decent human being vote for this lot? Not only that, but having seen what they’re doing, still support it?
Did Nicola Willis' clarity of plan and obvious economic prowess or Christopher Luxon's charisma and character sway their vote? Maybe not, but there has to be a reason people voted for them.
To be fair, National didn’t exactly come out and say that when it comes to negotiations, we’ll give away pretty much every crazy thing NZF and ACT want, so in effect, a vote for us is a vote for them.
So we can’t hold National voters responsible for all of those fringe policies. Those are on Luxon and his team of woeful negotiators. But there are things that it’s reasonable to pin on them, namely the cuts being made to our public services to pay for their tax cuts.
Like yesterday when “more than 100 Wellington families caring for mentally ill children lost access to government-funded respite care they say they desperately need”.
That was the clear tradeoff - services for tax cuts. Even with much of the media seemingly asleep at the keyboard during the last election, it became obvious that the impossible wasn’t real, even if Nicola and Christopher had said it was.
That is, you can’t cut taxes AND cut borrowing AND keep on spending; it doesn’t add up. National did confess there would be cuts to the public sector, but they wouldn’t say what they would be or where they would make them. So voters were flying blind to a degree. But that doesn’t excuse anyone from believing the lie that front-line services would not be impacted.
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