THE CULT OF 'JACINDA'

At a time of an  economic crisis that is only getting worse, slavish devotion to Jacinda Ardern is not a solution.

THERE IS SOMETHING mildly inane about how Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is invariably referred to as 'Jacinda', even by many mainstream journalists who should know better. Apparently folk are on a first name basis with Ardern in a way they aren't with National Party leader Judith Collins, ACT leader David Seymour or Green co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw. Yet they all seem personable enough.

Despite the fact she's on a salary of over $470,000 plus expenses and spends much of her time on the eighth floor of the Beehive surrounded by an army of staffers as well as security, we're supposed to believe Jacinda Ardern is 'one of us' in a way that none of the other political leaders are.

The National Party's most successful leader of recent times, John Key, was rarely called by his first name. To emphasise how much he wasn't one of us, people liked to refer to him as 'the smiling assassin' and highlight the fact that he resided in a $50 million Remuera mansion.

Obviously Key was no working class champion, but we seem to have decided that we are going to conveniently ignore that 'Jacinda' is the seventh highest political leader in the world and the fifth highest paid leader among the OECD countries. She's not short of a few bob and makes about ten times the amount of the average Kiwi, and that was pre-virus. Not only that, she's been a fully paid up member of the political establishment ever since she worked in the policy unit of the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But she's still supposed to be 'one of us'.

There is a mawkish mixture of sentimentality and hero worship surrounding Ardern. There was a collective 'aaah’ when she presented her baby to the nation for the first time, the sort of reaction normally reserved for when a member of British Royalty has a kid. She even got kudos merely for taking her child on to the floor of the United Nations. 

She's a favourite with the women's magazines who like to hang the latest fashion on her and she gets far more covers than Judith Collins will ever get - even if Collins wears a baseball cap and a leather jacket. Ardern's ability to hug someone at a moments notice is regarded as irrefutable evidence of her 'empathy' rather than it being another staged attempt to get on the six o'clock news bulletins. 

Her preference for gestures rather than substance has been such that she often seems to be leading a advertising campaign rather than a government.

I've noticed over the past three years that whenever I have criticised Ardern and the policies of her government I am likely to be attacked in the social media, often in extremely abusive terms. None of Ardern's 'kindness' has been evident here. Indeed I've noticed that whenever I have criticised 'Jacinda' I have experienced a drop of followers on Twitter. Its an insignificant drop but I am undoubtedly being told that I have violated the convention of uncritical devotion to 'Jacinda'. So I must be sent into exile immediately.

Therein lies the problem. While the first flush of 'Jacidamania' may of long receded there remains a dangerous level of sentimentality and slavish devotion to Ardern, that both blinds her devotees to her obvious faults and that wants to silence dissent. I don’t think we’ll ever reach the stage of having to pray at the feet of ‘The Great leader’ - North Korean style - but we have reached the point where any criticism of Ardern is often interpreted as being disloyal to the nation and undermining the fight against the coronavirus.

But such has been the absurd response to 'Jacinda', the so-called Labour left still wants to paint her as a 'progressive' amenable to progressive policies - even when her entire political career has been one of a centrist market politician who instinctively runs for the middle ground rather than rock the boat.  It has been quickly and conveniently forgotten that she campaigned in 2017 as a leader of change but, once safely installed in office, quickly reverted to type and has been a staunch defender of the status quo ever since.  She is no Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In the midst of an economic crisis that is only getting worse, 'Jacinda' has nothing to offer but more of the same. Her election campaign - such as it is - is centrist , dull, and uninspiring. When real change is desperately and urgently needed, she remains subservient to corporate interests and the god of profit. Instead of being politically and economically liberating, 'Jacinda' is proving to be debilitating. But by feeding the Cult of Jacinda, some of us have only ourselves to blame.