Jordan vs Roger

An interesting post from Jordan Carter on Sir Roger Douglas, whom he will be up against in Hunua. Some extracts and comments:

He is the prime salesman of the concepts which created poverty in New Zealand for the first time in two generations.

Okay so there was no poverty under Muldoon. Must remember that.

He stands for an unfair society based on concepts of right and privilege that are abhorrent to ordinary New Zealanders.

Now note here he doesn’t just attack Sir Roger’s policies but says Sir Roger is motivated by privilege. He can’t possibly concede that Sir Roger (as someone who served in Labour for far longer than Jordan) wants the same outcomes as Jordan, but just disagrees on the way to do it. No, there is an inability to credit your opponent with noble motives. You disagree with them, so they must be bad people is what he is saying.

His agenda is the same agenda he had in 1988: it is pulled right out of the deep freeze, an obsolete, out of date prescription for the problems our country faced twenty years ago. Everything has moved on except the Year Zero fanaticism of Sir Roger Douglas, ACT and most of the National Party.

Nice allusion to Pol Pot there. And note that Jordan doesn’t just paint Sir Roger as that, but all of ACT and most of National.

So I appreciate ACT’s honesty: Sir Roger and friends know what they stand for and are prepared to talk about it. Which is why having him as an opponent in Hunua is just brilliant. We’ll be able to debate reality, not the faux shadowboxing that is my National Party opponent’s only offer.

What would be nice is if he debates policies, instead of slogans.