Distractions ignored as practicality big winner

Buffoons and clowns do not win elections.

I am immensely gratified with virtually all aspects of Saturday night's election.

A while back I wrote, in an editorial, that voters needed to stay focused on what really counted, and the people whom they wanted to really represent them in Parliament. I was speaking to the Wairarapa readership, but it seems to me the entire country stayed focused on the main game as well.

There's a lot of very hard lessons learned, lessons that really should have been obvious, if it weren't for all the sideshows. They are lessons the public doesn't need to learn, but parties need to take heed of.

You need money to fight an election. But voters don't like it when that money is obvious and showy.

Buffoons and clowns do not win elections.

Scaremongering, scandal, and extreme views sometimes work when the voting public is intensely dissatisfied with the incumbent. But in a climate where the incumbent is doing well, no one is particularly interested.

This election has seen some of the worst kind of political extremism and confused nonsense, from people who must never, ever, be allowed to have any kind of sway in this country.

What some parties were offering were alternatives to practicality and what was already a reasonably functioning system. That really isn't an offer at all. It's probably why NZ First did so well, broadcasting their common sense policies.

I do believe there are social inequities which perhaps a change of government could have explored. The National Government isn't perfect. No government ever is, and that's why we have democracy.

But I am gratified because we have seen, with MMP, situations where the election has happened and we end up in limbo for a month, while parties negotiate, squabble, and bicker over who will go with whom. We should be relieved that's not the case this time. And perhaps this speaks to a maturity in the MMP system. In that moment, when you go to the polling booth poised to make those ticks, you do it privately and seriously, without reference or deference to anyone. In the end, performance counts, and many voters are traditional and practical. If we want a show, we go to a movie. But if we want a government, we take it seriously.