In a nation of 350 million people it’s just not possible to cover all the elections going on. You pick the ones that seem important or unusual and watch them to see if there are indicators of broader, deeper forces at work across the nation.
Arizona is one of those places, because it’s a border state with Mexico and that’s a big issue in America. But I’d been more focused on Senate race between Democrat Mark Kelly (former Shuttle astronaut) and ignored the Governor’s race. Given that in many respects a Governor’s position in a US State is more powerful than a Senator’s it’s a race I should not have ignored.
I especially should not have ignored it because of the Republican candidate, Kari Lake. I’d never heard of her before three weeks ago, but boy, this lady has the potential to go a long way in US politics, judging by the brilliant responses she made in two, separate stand-up media events.
First up was this attempted gotcha question from a reporter where the now-standard ploy is attempted of using the 2020 Presidential election to paint her either as a “conspiracy theorist” and “Trumpist” or sweep all questions under the rug and align with the Democrat narrative, depending on her answer. Watch.
Reporter: “You feel like Joe Biden is dividing the country. Do you feel Donald Trump is doing the same by falsely telling people he won that election when he lost it?”
Lake: “How does that divide the country? Questioning an election where there are obviously problems is dividing the country? …. Since when can we not ask questions about our elections? As a journalist for many years—I was a journalist after 2016 and I distinctly remember many people just like you, asking a lot of questions about the 2016 election results and nobody tried to shut you up.
Nobody tried to tell Hillary Clinton to shut up. Nobody tried to tell Kamala Harris when she was questioning the legitimacy of these electronic voting machines to stop. We have freedom of speech in this country and you of all that people should appreciate that. You’re supposedly a journalist.
Two weeks later it happened again, this time on the matter of abortion and the recent SCOTUS reversal of Roe:
Lake not only effectively destroyed the implication that pro-life policies are anti-women, but she also effectively made the case that women should have access to all information and options before getting an abortion. But where she really shone was how she took the question and made it into an indictment of the media for their failure to ask her Democrat opponent about her abortion views — which are most definitely more radical than what Arizonians support.
This lady is good, really good. Both of these are a master class for Right-Wing politicians everywhere on how to deal with this sort of distracting shit. This is not waffling spin and deflection that is hoping the issue will just go away. Instead she did the following:
- She clearly laid out her own stand on the issue in question.
- She laid out her opponent’s position and hammered it – rather than waiting for the MSM to do it.
- She hit the bias of the MSM reporter and turned the issue back on her as to why they’re not asking her opponent the same question.
Luxon. Truss. Even Seymour. Plus a host of other Right-Wing politicians.
This is how it’s done.
No Minister 
Wow she’s good.
She should perhaps teach Luxon to respond to Arderns carping that Nationals tax cuts will be inflationary , by saying “ Yes you might be right , if the economies been destroyed, and I guess you know more than most New Zealanders. We will only know when we get hold of the books and see what you’ve really done Jacinda”
Ardern is worried about what National might do that is inflationary is a bit of a joke given the inflation demon is out of the box and wreaking havoc already.
In terms of being able to debate the partisan media and the damaging policies of Labour, the opposition need to be really clear on their principles and how they apply to the current situation, as well as their policies, and why they are good for the country, acknowledging where they may have side effects, and how they plan to mitigate those.
I don’t see much of that clarity coming out of National. I see it more so from Act, but they have also disappointed on the matter of what I would expect from liberal principles.
Currently, I don’t have any party that supports my views and political priorities. The only thing that is crystal clear is we need Labour out. Whatever replaces it is unlikely to be great but the chemo is killing us and ignoring the cancer.
There is something to be said for obstreperous, in yer face push-back to the shibboleths of the woke progressive left. Playing footsies and trying to appease them is a fools errand, Mr Luxon.