SUPPORTING SOCIALISM OVER THERE...

Green co-leader Marama Davidoson claims that her politics are similar to that of soclalist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

WHILE ITS creditable that Marama Davidson has acknowledged the stunning election victory of Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez she really is pushing the boat out to claim that she shares a natural political affinity with the woman who will be the United States youngest ever congresswoman.

Davidson tweeted: "Ok. She is after my heart. She has it.Kia kaha sista!"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a socialist. She is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, that country's largest socialist organisation. What does the DSA believe in? It's website makes that quite clear:

"Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives."

Marama Davidson has never expressed at any time that she is a socialist. Similarly, she has never stood up in Parliament and told her fellow MP's that there must be a radical transformation of New Zealand's democracy and its economy.

But she has expressed support for neoliberalism. She did that when she stood up in Parliament and praised  Grant Robertson's fiscally severe budget that announced not the end of neoliberalism but its continuation under the Labour-New Zealand First coalition government.

Said Davidson: "But this is a real government and this is a very good first Budget. Is it perfect? It's a great start."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez working in a New York bar in 2017.

And, of course, she is the co-leader of a Green Party that meekly props up this government largely without resistance.

The New Zealand media often refers to Marama Davidson as 'progressive' or even 'radical' but without reflecting on what that terms means when she is not only the co-leader of a party that props up a centrist government but also makes speeches praising the government's neoliberal economic policies.

It's not surprising then, that she can claim that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a woman after her own heart and not only get away with it but be roundly applauded by a whole swathe of her Twitter followers. Indeed one her of her Twitter followers suggests that she should encourage Jacinda Ardern to send her congratulations to Ocasio-Cortez!

Marama Davidson can unite in solidarity with a socialist politcian  in the United States if she wants to, but not only does she display no identification with socialist politics in her own country she actively supports a government that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would have very little in common with. That, frankly, sticks in my claw but she seems to be one of many faux socialists in this country who have propped up the Labour Party for the past three decades.