this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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NZ Politics

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I'm making the bold assumption, that most people here are not running, in either local body or national elections.

Everyone loves the complain about what "public servants" do. So why not step up and do something about it?

No accusation intended or implied. Just curious.

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[–] passwordforgetter -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'd register as a Christchurch council candidate but only if someone would pay the fee. I'm broke and in my thirties, I had more money when I was 19-23 lol. Good news though, my friend Vince McLeod became press secretary for NZ Loyal, and I'll be voting for Kelvyn Alp. They got rid of Liz Gunn, and Kelvyn actually cares about housing. On rare occasions I'll write to Kelvyn on Signal or Telegram. He doesn't have millions of dollars, he's just a political activist who knows a lot of people. Whereas most of Parliament are lawyers or from business.

Politics is largely a waste of time, but if you're outside politics you can still meet like-minded people and at least keep ideas flowing. Perhaps change public opinion slowly over time. I'd love to see these middle age and elderly councillors get voted out, but I don't know who's going to run - probably a university student in their early 20s who thinks that they know everything? I'm not going to vote for a university student or university graduate who's into climate change and lgbt as their main ideologies. Parliament is already full of these people. Even Christopher Luxon, a supposed right-winger, says that climate change is real and that he enjoys the Big Gay Out. You kind of have to say these things to get on television and radio, but we all know it's insincere marketing, and for some reason we go along with it.

I'm so far to the right that I view Christopher Luxon as a progressive, but for me it isn't about political spectrums or ideology, it's about energy. I'm in favour of expanding the school lunch programme to the point of having on-site catering, with actual chefs, not just sandwich makers on a temporary contract. Is that right wing? I want a country I can be proud of, and I think that we need something like "patriotism" or "national pride". Those words mean different things to different people. Anyway, it's an untapped resource - national pride. Labour may have built the school lunch programme but I still resent that they don't make food on site at the schools. Other countries do it, and by not having this programme on site, we are behind other countries. I'm not proud of what NZ has become.

Millions of dollars wasted in Afghanistan, and we can't even have a good school lunch programme. My opinion: if you don't have any passion or energy then don't get into politics, do something boring instead. Don't reinvent the wheel. Politics is so dogmatic and plain here in New Zealand. I'd be happy to run as a candidate but I won't do media interviews or any of the other stuff that I described above. People are tired of the B.S. and we need to get to the point. Instead of asking "what are your policies" I'd ask people "what do you want" or "what would make you proud to be a New Zealander".

[–] Ilovethebomb 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Pro trump, pro Putin, anti gay, pro climate change, the list goes on.

At least you're pro school lunches, I guess.

[–] passwordforgetter 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

At least you’re pro school lunches, I guess.

That itself isn't the hill to die on though.

[–] Ilovethebomb 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, but so far it's your sole redeeming characteristic.

[–] passwordforgetter 1 points 2 days ago

No, but so far it’s your sole redeeming characteristic.

At least I'm not sarcastically criticising people, while holding no position of my own.