A DEMOCRACY IN NAME ONLY

Verity Johnson has bemoaned the state of our democracy, but still wants people to vote. But all that will do is shore up a failed status quo.

COLUMNIST VERITY JOHNSON gets off to a bad start when she describes the 'hardcore left' as 'those who will vote Labour until they shrivel up like the raisins in their scroggin.' I could well be described as 'hardcore left' because I am a socialist. But because I am a socialist I stopped voting Labour several elections ago. For my troubles I have, over the years, been variously described by Labour supporters as an 'extremist', 'sectarian' and an 'ultra leftist'. Last year though my allegiances apparently shifted to the far right with some Labour lefties taking exception to my support for the Wellington occupation.

Verity Johnson's definition of the 'hardcore left' may well describe those who automatically vote Labour at every general election. But voting for a right-wing party that has promoted and defended neoliberalism for four decades does not make you 'hardcore left'. It makes you stupid. 

That stupidity is on display again now. Unable to credibly defend the political record of the Labour Government, all Labour lefties have to offer (again) is the limp defence that a National government would be much worse. Here's Martyn Bradbury of The Daily Blog stinking out the room with more trite 'lesser evilism': 'Labour and the Green's have been woeful, but sweet Jesus them on a bad day is better than National and ACT on good day.' 

This crap argument is not going to win over any of the Millennial's that Johnson represents. She writes: 'I’ve lost count of the people I’ve spoken to this week (smart, articulate and historically politically engaged people) who aren’t planning on voting in October. What’s the point, they shrug, there’s no one to vote for.'

That's what some 900,000 non-voters concluded at the last general election and nothing that has happened over the past six years is likely see them vote this year either. They are disengaged, disaffected and don't believe politics can make a difference in their lives. And the behaviour of the Labour Government will do little but confirm for them that voting has little to do with the way that real decisions are made in this country. Four decades of relentless neoliberal rule, under both Labour and National governments, is hardly a glowing advertisement for our so-called 'representative democracy'.

Verity Johnson, unlike her some of our 'progressive commentators', recognises that the decline will continue after the general election: 'Whatever happens on October 14, it feels like there’s just gonna be another 3 years of muddling, myopic, middle management politics where we have our head up our ass and our ecosystem on fire.'

But Johnson still thinks people should vote, to defend our 'democracy'. But it is exactly this defence of an unresponsive electoral system that fails to give people what they want that will do little to encourage wider participation in our so-called 'representative democracy'. Johnson is trying to defend the indefensible: a broken electoral system that is structurally incapable of delivering change – or even a genuine political contest. US socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has observed that we risk democracy when we allow 'the continued sophisticated takeover of our democratic systems in order to turn them into undemocratic systems.' 

Democracy has to be about more than just voting. Perhaps it's time to transform our unresponsive political system so it truly represents the wishes of the majority rather than the one percent.