Long time readers might recall that it was a demonstration at Auckland University against the ACT political party just before the 1999 election that got me motivated in respect of NZ politics. I witnessed a large collection of neo-communists from the university shouting down, with a degree of hate and venom that appalled me, speakers from a political party that advocated a traditional liberal political viewpoint. Here we were in a university, where freedom of political expression should be sacrosanct and the Communists had such a grip on the political discussion, true liberals (or at least as close as NZ had to true liberals back then) were denied a voice.
I stood and watched this event with growing horror. The smugness and lack of respect exhibited by the neo-communists from Auckland University was astonishing. I immediately joined the local ACT party and did what I could to help them get elected. I participated in the NZ Herald discussion forum. I was amazed at the hate and intolerance my views produced. In fact in the end, the forum was shut down because leftists made it completely unusable by swamping it with hundreds of repetitive messages. They preferred to completely destroy the forum rather than allow a Conservative a voice.
I moved on to usenet discussion groups, mainly nz.general and nz.politics. Once again, the hate and intolerance for my views was remarkable. The problem with usenet is your IP address is displayed upon every message. My provider was swamped with messages complaining about my posts. Eventually they cancelled my account. I arranged a new account. Once again, the neo-communists were determined to shut me down and continued to write endless letters of complaint. Eventually, to their credit, the management of the IP (Orcon) issued a written statement stating that no matter how many complaints they received, they were never going to cancel my account. Everlasting thanks to Bill and other ever loyal supporters who helped me on that occasion.
I had my own web page with its own discussion forum. I had to shut the forum down because it just took me too long each day to clean it of the spam and other filth the left sabotaged it with. I could relate so many stories regarding the vile methods the left resorted to in attempts to shut me down. (That’s not really my point.) Then blogs came along, and I guess most here know the story from that point forward.
During all this time, I had consistently promoted my standard political viewpoint. Minimum government, low taxes, individual responsibility and maximum liberty. The left indulged in every vile tactic they could think of to discredit that viewpoint. Although I was at first surprised to learn what despicable unprincipled scum so many leftists are, I grew to expect it as normal and it soon ceased to matter. What was hardest to cope with was the sneering of their allies, the soft right.
I have never wavered in my message. I have never retreated from my view that socialism was the eventual death knell for any country that allowed that vile ideology to dominate its political condition. I have consistently refused to discuss the finer detail of how the poison should be consumed. I have always just said– “do not drink it…. not one drop..!!”
Now across Europe we see the outcomes that I have always predicted and warned against eventuating. Even the US, taken far from its constitutional moorings by the soft tyranny of the left, is in dire straits. Right now, there is every indication that what we are observing is just the start of widespread social and economic collapse in every country where Marxist/ Keynesian socialism has been dominant. NZ will not be spared and neither will any other country.
I was right when I started writing on the Herald forum way back in 1999. On usenet in ensuing years and on the blogosphere in later years. I was right, and so were the few who supported me. Those who were wrong are the left, and the soft right who bought into the socialist lie. Those who postured as an antidote but were in fact just smaller doses of the same poison. They aided and assisted the left while they sneered at me, and they scorned me. Many are still doing it.
Here (finally) is my point.
Just think if we had spoken as one voice. If the message for small government, minimum taxes, minimum regulation, maximum liberty and individual responsibility had become the core of the debate rather than kept on the fringe. Just imagine if that political viewpoint had become dominant, and NZ and every other country had moved away from socialism and on to the small government model. The crisis we face today could have been avoided.
Now we have that message becoming much louder. The Tea Party in the US has changed the face of politics there. Because people are at last widely and strongly expressing those small government views, the left are on the run like never before. The Republicans are being transformed, and as a result are almost sure to regain control of the House of Representatives. The left and their allies, the soft right, are losing. As they should, and as the collapses in Europe and elsewhere demonstrate they should.
It could have all been so much less painful. If only the left had not had the support of the soft right, they would have been routed long ago. Its time for these white ants posing as anti-left to retire from the political scene. To take responsibility for their enabling of the destructive left and to shut up and go away. Or even join the left that is in many cases their true political home. They’re more helpful there than crippling the offensive of the anti-Marxists. No war can be won by any force with an enemy fifth column operating within.
The message is small government. The enemy are Keynesians and Marxists. The objective is to defund and defeat these forces. You don’t agree wholeheartedly with those simple objectives, then you’re wearing the wrong uniform. Get over on the other side and help them fly the red flag. Just remember to have the white one ready to fly in its place, because we’re coming after you this time, and we’re not the same disunited force you once faced, for the line has been drawn, and we’ll be stopped by nothing but victory.
..and you will not shout us down as you shouted down that miserable little group of ACT speakers all those years ago.
