homemadecatapult

I’m sick of politics.. At the beginning of the US presidential campaign season I was enjoying myself, late night TV was good, there were some great memes and it all seemed like a bit of a joke. But now, like many others I’m starting to feel a bit unwell..

Unlike any election in my lifetime, the late US presidential election seems to have been the most divisive, angry and depressing. And here in little old New Zealand, we (myself included) got sucked right in, we picked sides, demonised each other and made a world of difference by bickering on Facebook (…myself included).

The thing that is most upsetting is that two mediocre candidates convinced America (and the rest of us) to see our countrymen as the enemy, to see our fellow citizens, not just as different or even ill-informed, but as evil. Dont misunderstand me, I think there is right and wrong, I think there are good politicians and bad politicians but I don’t think that 47.5% of America are racist bigots, nor do I think 48% are aloof elitists. I’ve been to America, the people I met were overwhelmingly friendly and polite. And here in NZ, Kiwis are renowned for their friendliness, but somehow in election season we all don colours and put blinders on (…me)

One of the least discussed parts of the 2016 US election was policy, it became about personalities. Donald Trump painted himself as a man of the people while Hillary’s big selling point was… erm.. that she wasn’t Donald Trump.. And somehow in this big mess policy was completely overshadowed. Sure there was some sensationalised talk of a boarder wall, there were even some good reporters that really tried to dig into the candidates for details. But did we the public respond to those articles or even read them? No, we formed arguments about how one of the candidates was the devil, quoted one sound-bite about policy and remained firmly entrenched in the views that we previously held without much consideration for the evidence (…me too).

All this to say: next year we go to the polls New Zealand. There will be opportunists who have watched the US elections, seen the divisive strategies at work and have their acrylics ready to paint horns onto their opponents. Lets not fall for it. Remember, at the heart of any election is the question of policy. I implore you to look at the evidence, whatever side of the fence you usually find yourself on, and vote for the candidate that will do the most good for the most amount of people.