Chris Trotter is a highly erratic ‘left’ political commentator, and to be frank, there are times when I have to grit my teeth at how archaic some of his political perspectives really are. No Right Turn has penned an excellent blog, in which he criticises Trotter’s newfangled blog, Bowalley Road.

Apparently, everything turned Friedmantic in New Zealand back in 1984. Muldoon never happened. First Past the Post never resulted in the election of electorally gerrymandered National administrations, and it’s the sort that Winston Peters and New Zealand First claimed to represent. NRT advocates a synthesis of the traditional left values of equality and freedom, alongside tolerance, diversity and (embedded) individualism.

I’d have to agree with him- particularly given a miserably antifeminist blog entry in which Trotter pines for the days when men were men, there were no battered women’s shelters, women died from backstreet abortions, gaybashings went unpunished and male homosexuality was illegal, that is, if one wasn’t poisoned through forced administration of inappropriate antipsychotic drugs within psychiatric institutions.

This is phenomenally stupid. Sorry to be this blunt, but I refuse to romanticise the past in the manner that Trotter does. It isn’t even good socialism- who do you think died from backstreet abortions in the bad old days, Chris? Working-class women did.  My maternal nanna’s sister was one of them, and my mum is named after her.

And then there are the ridiculous remarks about John Tamihere. Tamihere is the product of New Right managerialism- he actually belongs with National or ACT, and always did. He was a misfit within the Labour caucus, and it is no accident that ACT has traditionally appealed more to men than women. As for Phil Goff, nothing lasts forever. We had a successful centre-left female Prime Minister for almost a decade. We will, again. In France, the Socialist Opposition has two female candidates pitted against each other. 

And in the United States, most tellingly of all, misogynist and racist poorly educated right wing white men voted for John McCain, and no-one else did. We need pluralist socialism, not deranged nostalgia for the past. If  this is what Trotter intends to dish up from now on, it’s time that he stepped aside and let a new-generation leftie take up, or risk distorting public perceptions of the Left as forever defeatist, romantic and exclusive.

Strongly Recommended:

http://www.norightturn.blogspot.com

Always excellent value- leading NZ centre-left blog.

Not Recommended:

http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/

Chris Trotter can’t cope with pluralist socialism…