Sunday, April 10, 2005

They got the vote in 1893 - move on!

I had an excellent afternoon of canvassing in central Howick today, covering a good fifty houses, and by and large receiving very good feedback. I absolutely stand by face to face canvassing as one of the most effective campaigning techniques - you simly can't beat one to one personal contact for communicating a message.

Interestingly, I only received one oblique comment about the Tamihere affair over the course of the afternoon, and that was from a pensioner who said that she was absolutely sick and tired of personalities dominating political discussion, and simply wanted to hear about the issues that actually effect people (a definite Labour voter to boot :-) ).

Anyway, I encountered a quite unusual phenomonen not once, but twice during the afternoon. I speak of a certain kind of gruff, middle aged man who simply cannot deal with the fact that in this country we actually allow women to attain positions of power. The conversations with these people tend to be reasonably short and unpleasant, and generally devolve into ramblings about a 'takeover', interlaced with a few choice expletives.

While I respect the varied views of residents in Pakuranga, and have many pleasant conversations with National supporters, I seriously wonder how these people deal with the world when they have such deep-seated and irrational prejudices.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL

"middle aged man who simply cannot deal with the fact that in this country we actually allow women to attain positions of power."

Must have been a Labour voter, sounds like a clique (not cliche) within the party. Did he talk about 'front bums' as well.

What an embarrassing culture you folk represent. Labour the party of gutter slang. But I suppose it is only the ignorant that are attracted by the spin, so what should we expect?

Span said...

i seem to recall a time when it attracted you so much that when some Labour people refused to sign you up you went out and found some members who hadn't heard of you and got them to give you the forms...

is it just me or are you getting grumpier and grumpier on the blogs as you go along? :-P

Anonymous said...

Span, I can't see how you would have found my post above grumpy.

It related Michaels comments about a voter to the comments of JT, and was pertinent to the thread. Surely you are able to grasp that connection. I found the comparison amusing.

I never found people who didn't know me to sign me up to anything, and pressed the point in the case you refer to because of the attempts to prevent me. had these attempts not occurred I would have probably become fast bored and not proceeded.

Similarly when Anderton joined me to the alliance in 1995 after a refusal by Matt mcCarten. While I found it hilarious to be a card carrying alliance member I probably wouldn't have bothered if McCarten hadn't been so aggressive.

The rebel/libertarian in me reacts badly to authoritarian attempts to restrict available options.

Not grumpy but staunch.
Freedom is choice.

Michael Wood said...

Kinda walked into that one!

Only the ignorant attracted by spin? By recent estimates you must consider around 45% of the population ignorant Graham.

Anonymous said...

Over 50% when you add in the 8% for NZ first