![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
I have been thinking a lot about voting, about how best to use my vote. In this age of MMP votes are much more strategic than they were with the old FPP. I have been mulling over various things. Things I see as bad.
1. I don't want Winston Peters to hold the balance of power in the coming election. No, not ever. He really scares me, he is probably the most extreme politician I know of now that Prebble is out of the game. Winston Peters as king maker = bad.
2. I don't really want a National government. Why? Because they are already lying to us. They have made tax cuts a platform, saying you'll take home so many extra dollars in your pocket each week. But this is a lie. Because they will cut spending on education, health, welfare etc, I'll end up paying anyway. And I'll probably end up paying more.
3. But I don't really want a labour government either because their aggressively anti family policies really bug me. At a recent UN meeting on families the NZ delegates blocked a resolution about protecting families. Tons of research shows that stable families are good for children and for the economy. And yet we, as a nation, people representing me, blocked resolutions recognising this. On the other hand Labour spends a lot on education and we have, despite what the media might lead you to believe, of of the best public education systems in the world, it certainly leads the way in a number of areas. A lage part of this is due to the mountians of money the government piles into education research and proffessional development for teachers, all of which flows on to kids. The system isn't perfect by any means, but it is very, very good. So I am bit torn over labour as I can see they are really the only real competition to National but they also do many things I don't like. So I coud vote for a coalition partner.
4. Despite the hysteria I voted United Furture with my party vote last time and it seems to have generally been a good thing. As a party they stood for a few core principles that I really like. Despite being harrassed because they were christian they have done okay. But I am not in Peter Dunnes electoral and it looks like a party vote for them would be a waste of a vote.
5. Progressive Alliance or whatever they are called are even more a waste of a vote.
6. I could never vote green either. I just disagree too fundamentally with what they stand for. And, chances are they'll get thier 5% any way.
In terms of candidates in wellington central I am not impressed with Marion Hobbs. She only ever got my vote as an anti richard Prebble vote anyway. But again in my electorate it's likely to be a two horse race.
I am glad the election date hasn't been decided yet, I'm not ready. And the Paucity of anything that I consider worth voting for makes me rather apathetic anyway. Because I have a rather electic set of very left wing and quite conservative views (yes, they don't contradict each other, at least not to my knowledge) there is really no one worth voting for. Democracy ends up becoming a majority rules affair and, it seems to me, that this is not always a good thing mostly because it gets decided, by most people, on the basis of visceral things like 'liking x candidtae' or 'wanting more money in my pocket'. And then we elect these people that run off and do things we never elected them to do, because we only really voted for some vote grabbing policy accompanied by a slick media campaign.
Feh, it makes me not want to bother at all.
Point of Fashion: I don't do fashion
Current Obsession: Doing anything to avoid writing the document I have to write and tidying my office.
- Mood:
cranky - Music:Nothin'
Comments
I think if you believe in United Future, you should vote for them. In the election before last (IIRC) I put my vote into the Green Party, who were polling pre-election at something like 3%, and they made the 5% threshold by about 120 votes. My exact vote didn't tip the scales over, but 120 is not a big margin. If 119 people and myself had looked at the 3% and given up, that would have been a body blow to them. O'course, United Future isn't at 3% is it? :) There's a wide perception amongst people I've talked to that they just didn't deliver on any policy promises, and have had a negligible impact on the direction of the Labour directives, but without looking internally, that's a hard claim to prove either way. Thing is though, if Peter Dunn wins his seat, every vote, even below 5%, gets him closer to a bigger voting block.
I'm personally voting Greens again. I'm not sure that I want them in power, and at current poling my choice for ruling party (labour) may not make it without my vote, but I want them to have a voice. Without my vote, they may not get that voice.
MMP has upped the game: not only do you have to think for yourself, you have to guess what everyone else will think. If I thought the Greens would be 10%, and setting policy, I'd consider just voting Labour. It's all a big ole guess. :)
The other difficulty is that in our single-chamber system if you're in the minority, you're nowhere. I'm also not sure there's a very direct accountability to your electorate under MMP because if you won your seat, chances are you're high enough to have gotten in on the list anyway. You don't need to advocate a consituency.
Final thought before I go to class is:
The Basis of Democracy is Letter Writing. If the government, your party, your MP, your mayor, etc, is doing something you don't like, write a letter to them saying so. :) Otherwise, how will they know? In a democracy, there is an onus on whoever is in charge to do two different and often conflicting things:
1. What is best
2. What the people want
I think that people often lose sight of #2. :)