"You call that a conservative? Nah, this is a conservative!" New Zealanders are in the market for a quiet and reassuring small-c conservative political centrist. The critical question, however, is which politician is currently playing that role? Who has mastered the art of relaxed, informal and intimate political communication? Who will soon announce her intention to mobilise the expertise of New Zealand’s most practical and successful businessmen and women? Who, like so many “ordinary” people has a toddler with a future to protect? Is it Todd Muller - or Jacinda Ardern?
THE PROBLEM WITH CENTRISTS is that, practically by
definition, they shy away from extremes. It’s the quality that most encourages
voters to trust them. The quality that makes people feel safe. Unfortunately,
it is also the quality most likely to bore people rigid. If a politician wishes
to promote safe policies, then it is absolutely vital that he does so in an
interesting and engaging way. If your brand of politics is boring, then you
have to be anything but. So far, Todd Muller has come across as every bit as
uninspiring as his politics. Not a good start.
In fact, compared to Jacinda Ardern’s first few days as
leader of the Labour Opposition, Muller’s gaffe-prone performances have
constituted an excruciating tutorial in how not to play the game of politics.
Who could forget the day Jacinda emerged from the Opposition
caucus-room as Labour’s new leader to greet the assembled media. Hers was a
performance so faultless, so accomplished, so crackling with energy and sheer,
draw-dropping competence that seasoned professionals were reduced to stunned
silence. Not, however, before offering brief, two-word responses to her
performance like: “holy shit!”, “fucking hell!”, and “bloody unbelievable!”
That some political commentators have uttered exactly the same words in
response to Muller’s performances should not be considered a good thing. In
Jacinda’s case the journalists were responding to how astonishingly good she
was; in Todd’s they were registering precisely the opposite!
Muller’s problem is that he lacks Jacinda’s ability to make
moderation come alive. Ardern understands that most people are drawn to
traditional values and common sense ideas. Far from seeing this as a sign of
their intellectual weakness, however, she treats it as proof of their ethical
strength. It’s an insight which allows her to infuse the great rounded hump of
the bell-curve with heroic purpose. By characterising people’s conventional
reactions as the only serious, morally-defensible options available, Jacinda
makes the ordinary extraordinary.
Just think of her inspired “They are Us” comment following
the dreadful events in Christchurch. It resonated so powerfully because it
expressed to perfection the instant identification with the unjustly attacked
that is hard-wired into the human animal. Ardern understands the enormous power
of common human emotions. Her ability to unleash them; to in effect mobilise
the ordinary; is what makes her such a formidable politician. Ardern’s
description of herself as a “pragmatic idealist”, and her commitment to being
“relentlessly positive”, encapsulate perfectly her determination to not only
make Labour’s middle-of-the-road brand of social-democratic politics interesting
and exciting, but also to make it honourable.
If Muller is to have the slightest hope of becoming
competitive in this election, then he has to get his head around all this – and
quickly. Conservatism, in its proper sense of reflecting the organic social bonds
linking the past (our parents) the present (ourselves) and the future (our
children) will always enjoy a pronounced advantage over those political
movements dedicated to altering the status quo. In politics, no less than in
physics, inertia is a difficult state to overcome. And when, for whatever
reason, it is overcome; when things are changing way faster than most people
like; then offering to make them stop will, almost always, be the winning
offer.
What does that mean in practical political terms? That
Muller doesn’t appear to know should be scaring the bejesus out of his
promoters. That he didn’t immediately reassure voters, calmly and with fatherly
conviction, that he understood fully the need – without in any way endangering
New Zealanders’ extraordinary victory over the Covid-19 virus – to do
everything required to bring New Zealand’s perilous economic situation under
control, is problematic – to say the least. Above all else, Muller’s approach
to the electorate needs to be relaxed and informal – intimate even. As an avid
reader of American political history, he should have no difficulty recalling
the way Franklin Roosevelt communicated with the American people during the
Great Depression. What could be more relaxed, informal and intimate than a “fireside
chat”?
Muller doesn’t need to attack Jacinda or her government
directly, he merely has to present the electorate with a credible plan for
economic recovery. He doesn’t have to point to Phil Twyford’s, David Clark’s
and Kelvin Davis’s failures, he simply has to draw people’s attention to how
much still remains to be done. And all the time, in the finest small-c
conservative tradition, he has to subtly remind voters of how well the country
has fared under past National governments; of the expertise he and his
colleagues can bring to bear immediately; of the historically reliable
instincts of practical and successful businessmen and women and how vital these
will be in securing a prosperous future for New Zealand’s children.
None of those objectives will be achieved by standing in an
empty Legislative Chamber, booming out trite phrases to Q+A’s Jack Tame,
and gesticulating wildly to thousands of startled New Zealanders sipping tea in
their living-rooms.
It is debateable whether Muller and his advisers understand
the danger they and the National Party are in. Yes, this is a moment for the
quiet and reassuring counsel of a small-c conservative political centrist. The
critical question, however, is which politician is currently playing that role?
Who has mastered the art of relaxed, informal and intimate political
communication? Who will soon announce her intention to mobilise the expertise
of New Zealand’s most practical and successful businessmen and women? Who, like
so many “ordinary” people has a toddler with a future to protect?
Is it Todd Muller – or Jacinda Ardern?
This essay was originally posted on The Daily Blog
of Thursday, 28 May 2020.
