John Pagani
The talkbacks are again belting Labour this morning, this time over a single poor poll.
Funny how they went silent after a poll that showed Labour holding up ok [pdf].
But one shows a dip and the Cassandra’s are in full howl.
Ignore them.
As Obama found, despite leading one of the ost successful presidencies in history you can never appease the beltway critics on the left.
Ignore them because the commentary consensus misses is hopelessly misaligned with the public’s views.
The commentary view is that Labour’s problems can be solved with just a bit more smarts, and if only they shifted left it would become suddenly resurgent.
But there is another explanation - one that’s not quite as neat for the left of politics: That a plurality of people actually approve of the job the National party is doing. That the last thing they want is a leap back to the last government.
They’re not desperate for a leap to the left.
They’re waiting for Labour to demonstrate it genuinely understands their needs - and that means endorsing more of what National is doing - the things the voting public approves of.
Every time Labour attacks policies and a government that voters generally approve of they alienate themselves further from potential supporters who are swinging between Labour and National.
Look at the numbers [pdf - same one as above]- more people feel optimistic than pessimistic on the economy, despite the dire economic conditions.
Overall voters think the country is on the right track by a considerable margin. They don;t believe that because Labour hasn't attacked the Government enough! They believe that because they think it really is doing generally ok.
It simply beggars belief to say that the right response to that situation is to start flying into the most popular things National is doing.
Take those calls by Labour’s critics on the left that Labour should tell thousands of people in Christchurch, who are using buckets for their ablutions - that politicking over the CERA law is more important than actually getting things fixed for them as fast as possible.
Insisting the public is wrong is a recipe for even more disaster. Attacking constructive things the government is doing is exactly the wrong option.
If anything, Labour should be pursuing more of a consensus approach, so that it can own more of the right direction.
