Island Life: Citizen Key
69 Responses
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Fascinating David. A very socalliy consiervative voting record indeed - against prostitution reform, against civil unions, in favour of explicitly defining marriage as between one man and one woman, in favour of raising the drinking age... How will this play in urban liberal voterland?
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Yay for the return of quizes! Being able to condense complex things down into interactive bytes is awesome.
And based on the results, I kind of want Brash back. Oh Joni Mitchell, how wise you are.
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Well I'll be jiggered, 4 right answers. Not that it really matters. John Key has that malleable quality to be whatever the script tells him to be.
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Yeah, he is a bit posterboy-ish. I can't imagine too many National voters will be dissapointed, despite (or because of) Brashs strong points.
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Key would be an awesome Prime Minister to rage against and secretly have a dirty crush on.
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And there I was capering about the lounge in unadulterated glee! Well actually I still am.... It's sobering to realise the nation may be jumping into the unknown so blythely. Your quiz is incredibly timely and gives a fairly good sense of Key's compass. I 'spect he'd be havin' the likes o' me walk the plank as NZ ltd sails splendidly off into the icebergs.
BUT- there was something corrosive, subtly poisonous, about Brash's leadership. I'm not gonna be surprised about any further Brethern dealings; but what might come out of "the hollow men"- what mostly troubles me- is the cynicism behind some of the public speechifying. Brash played the political naif, the "mr smith goes to wellington" thing quite superbly- and it worked well for him. And maybe the Orewa speech was a heartfelt and principled stand for equality and racial comity (whatever that means!) Maybe.
Now there's no chance he'll be PM I'm prepared to give him full benefit of the doubt. But just based on what Brash did and said in the 90s as reserve bank governor, I'm still gleeful he's never gonna to monetarise this country and most everything I love into a sort of Living Masoleum to Milton Friedman. Yeeeeha! -
Gary:
With all due respect, I'm waiting for a 'social liberal' to explain to me what's so liberal about denying people like my (male) partner and I genuine, unconditional equality before the law by allowing us the option of entering into a civil marriage if we choose to do so. It's all very well for Helen Clark to say she'd have become a CUP-cake if she'd had that option back in the day, and more power to her. The simple fact remians she and Peter can dissolve their marriage and get civil unionised tomorrow if they so wish; their close friends Chris Carter and Peter Kaiser don't have the option of doing the reverse.
I don't know about you, Gary, but on any issue I prefer an honest enemy to a fairweather friend.
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Wow! Key is a more right wing than I thought. As regards his lack of compass I am reminded of the saying that he who stands for nothing will stand for anything. National, in the tradition of neo-cons worldwide, is looking for the quick fix, the simple solution to a complex problem & Key may be their man - malleable, articulate, good-looking (although a little short). Time will tell. The fact that he is a millionaire Jewish financier will be a gift to conspiracy theorists and bigots everywhere but that may be something in his favour with the rest of us. I must say that with every interview I have seen Key do I am reminded of that movie starring Tim Robbins - I think it was called Bob Roberts. ( I stand to be corrected on that). But that political satire showed just how far charm & a lack of compass can take you. George W. also showed how easy it is to fool all of the people some of the time.
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i tried this last night and got ten by answering yes to everything that sounded vaguely like something a liberal economist would vote for, and no to everything a moral conservative would vote against.
i.e., "those homos better tax me lightly, or not at all".
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I got 7, which is just slightly better than random. On the tax-write-off bits, he's even more prgamatic than I thought: almost towards the "picking winners" end rather than the "tax cuts everywhere" end.
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I got 7, which is just slightly better than random
I've added a page that graphs the scores, in the manner of the old Treaty quiz.
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what the? where's my score of ten!
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Che, you probably did it before I set it up this morning to capture the scores.
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You wrote:
This morning's Stuff carries the expression "Christchurch state house boy made good" in a story about Key.They're not the only ones running this line, and I can't say I care for what it seems to imply; namely that those who grow up in such homes might be expected to be of diminished worth and capability, and also that those who lead a successful life after such a beginning are some sort of aberration.
I'm well aware of the dismal stories about multiple generations of state dependancy,but that's not the whole picture. I'm not often given to quoting George W Bush with approval, but this does smack of the "soft bigotry of low expectations."
Just off the top of my head I can think of a few of our readers who grew up in a Christchurch state house and who are leading lives of impressive accomplishment. Anyone who fits this description would be very welcome to offer their thoughts by hitting the Discuss button.
Well, I wasn't born and raised in a state house but certainly wasn't born with a canteen of silver cutlery in my mouth. Personally, I'm a damn slight less offended by a lame 'working class boy made good' headline than Michael Cullen calling John Key a "working class scab". FFS, Mike, have you looked at the CV's of your own caucus recently - or considered that a Christ's College old boy should be very careful about bitching anyone else as a class traitor?
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phew... would hate to think people caught me out making shit up. again.
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Just off the top of my head I can think of a few of our readers who grew up in a Christchurch state house and who are leading lives of impressive accomplishment.
Well, I didn’t grow up in Christchurch, and I don’t have a life of impressive accomplishment -- but I did spend my early childhood in a state house in West Auckland. Also my mother was on the DPB (on and off) for a couple of years after my parents’ marriage broke up. When I tell people this they often seem surprised that I am not in prison or -- at the very least -- on some sort of government welfare. But I am pleased to report that this has not been the case (unless you count the couple of years I spent working as a university lecturer).
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And I grew up in a state house, not in New Zealand but in North Wales, and frankly so did most of the kids I knew and so far I know of only one who ended up in jail (if you're going to rob banks do it properly I say)...
but on the other foot, how many privileged, well-to-do fellows end up on the wrong side of the law? Enron, Billionaires Boys Club... the list is quite extensive. Of course, it's CLEAN crime. Thousands lose their pensions but nobody gets beaten to death with a spade so that's OK.
It's all part of the "he's a nice man in a suit and a tie so he couldn't POSSIBLY do us any harm, could he?" carry on that gets us into so much trouble in the first place. LOOK BEYOND THE FACE PEOPLE... see what they're really like.
/rant over/
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Apropos the state house thing: are you saying that Key was never weaned off the Nanny State teat, but continues to both suck and bite it in his middle age (being taxpayer funded)?
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ditto to david. i also grew up in a state house, but in pre-boom mount maunganui. and my background is a little more, umm, 'difficult' than David's. statistically, i should be in prison.
as for making it out of that mire, let's just say that the attitudes of some conservatives were less than helpful.
you think NZL doesn't have a 'class-ist' attitude? try looking up from where i started.
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Personally, I'm a damn slight less offended by a lame 'working class boy made good' headline than Michael Cullen calling John Key a "working class scab".
I don't like that either. Labour doesn't own the vote of every state house kid.
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I, like JK, was brought up in a state house.
The state house system was created to enable working class families to have some sort of security in which to bring up their kids in a safe environment. The state saw this as an investment as much as anything else. Give these kids stability and good schools and we will get a return.
So we got one (a return) from John (I suppose) but we also got it from many of the people that I grew up with -- doctors, engineers, mathemeticians, teachers all of whom have contributed to making this country a better place.
I too am proud of what I have achieved and I got my start in that system -- but unlike Mr Key, I still believe in it and have kept faithful to my roots.
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I grew up in Timaru in a street full of state houses and solo mothers. Growing up, only one of my friends lived with both their birth parents. Because I'm a chick, I believe I'm supposed to have a bunch of teen pregnancies rather than go to prison.
The fact that I didn't, and I've managed to haul my butt up the ladder a bit, doesn't mean I was a plucky little lass battling against the odds, it means I had a hugely supportive and intelligent mother (because anyone can end up raising their kids on the DPB, not just trash, white or otherwise) and a tremendously brave uncle who embezzled money off my father before he drank it all so I could go to uni. Cheers, Uncle Doug. I've got absolutely no idea how much 'making good' Key did all by himself, but I don't like the idea that I should somehow identify with him because of it.
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I must say that with every interview I have seen Key do I am reminded of that movie starring Tim Robbins - I think it was called Bob Roberts. ( I stand to be corrected on that).
Bob Roberts was the one with the Christian Fundy on the campaign trail. He was also a Christian musician and he'd mix up his campaign stops with singing songs about family and whatnot. There was one with a wonderful chorus which basically consisted of repeating "Don't do drugs..." from memory. And the quote "Don't smoke crack. It's a ghetto drug." Behind the scenes in the campaign bus he was terribly corrupt and a complete arsehole. Tim Robbins acted it wonderfully.
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Hell, with his voting record he'll at least appeal to the Christians. I suppose he can also claim to be a clear alternative to Clark.
I'm surprised by his votes, but not entirely, and regardless of what he actually believes, his pattern of voting makes him a classic Nat - but is this what the electorate want? His anonimity has enabled him to be all things to all disaffected people, I wonder how appealing he'll be in 6 or 12 months; cute on TV don't make you a leader.
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I still live in a state house, I own the letter box. I await "greatness"
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