Washington DC

One result in the US election last week spoke volumes. The final count in the State of Washington DC was Harris 93% – Trump 7%. It was a result which highlighted the yawning chasm between the beliefs and values of the elite governing class – and the majority of American citizens. In the nation’s capital, the ruling class of bureaucratic, political, business and media elites remained firmly ensconced in their own self-virtuous world of woke. But outside in the rest of America, the Garbage spoke.

In the heartland rural and industrial working class States, they spoke. They refused to be gas-lit and cowed into thinking they were bad people for still believing in the American dream. They refused to accept that allowing millions of people to flood into their country illegally was a good idea. They didn’t buy into economic and climate policies making them worse off and their nation more dependent on foreigners. They didn’t celebrate with their President as he danced on the Whitehouse lawn with men wearing dresses.

And most of all, they didn’t believe the years-long barrage of media indoctrination that Donald Trump was somehow the reincarnation of Hitler. They claimed the right to make their own judgement – and on November 4^th they did. Trump returned with millions more votes than both prior elections, and won more States than his first victory in 2016.

There is a lesson here for all the liberal elites who in recent decades have manoeuvred themselves into the cultural and political high places of many western countries. Democracy doesn’t belong to them. The question is – will they listen?

In our own nation it seems they are not. Last year New Zealanders threw out the most liberal government in our history, and placed in our Parliament a centre-right coalition which included some robust conservatives in the NZ First and Act parties. And yet the liberal elites have continued on their woke ways.

In the bureaucracy there is the Solicitor General who tried to revise Crown prosecution guidelines so they were no longer colour blind. And the Law Commission which continues to push for the legal enforcement of gender ideology. There are the Police who started registering hate crime incidents against individuals, when there are no such laws on our statute books. And the teachers in New Plymouth who banned a young man’s well considered contribution from the school speech contest, because it might offend some students. In the corporate world there are the HR departments pushing pronouns into everyone’s email signatures, and requiring staff to complete compulsory e-learning modules on the full range of diversity topics.

And of course there are the New Zealand media elites, continuing in their attempts to gaslight us on multiple fronts. Apparently we need to understand that “men” can have babies – and it is a wonderful thing. And we also need to understand that views about sovereignty and the Treaty which were accepted by nearly all New Zealanders for 150 years are now misinformation, racist and divisive. Indeed our national broadcaster TVNZ has on repeat the constant refrain that the new government is “attacking” the Treaty and Māori. Never mind that since coming to office it has continued to spend millions on Māori broadcasting, language, and cultural courses, as well as progressing three more Treaty settlement deals through Parliament.

All this shows the liberal ruling elite in our land, much like the 93% in Washington DC, won’t be giving up in a hurry. However eventually they will not be able to out-manoeuvre the sheer people-power of our democracies. And there are already signs of hope. Our Parliament now has some robust anti-woke voices. Our media landscape is now seeing new platforms facilitating alternative views. And some of our young people are clearly determined to think for themselves, and not be silenced. The swamp is beginning to drain…

Ewen McQueen
November 2024