America would never happen here!

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, January 22nd, 2025 - 42 comments
Categories: david seymour, Dirty Politics, Donald Trump, Environment, Mining, taxpayers union, workers' rights - Tags: , , , ,

For too long, I’ve been very careful not to use the word “fascism” loosely — but do you remember an American government and country like today?

But it’s not just over there.

The playbook we see here in Aotearoa New Zealand is, in my view, a miniature and ‘tailored’ version of the USA one— not at the exact same juncture for obvious reasons – i.e. we’re a different country with a different personality, political cycle, politicians, and still have good strongholds of progressive values – but directionally, and trajectory wise, it’s on par.

“Drill baby, drill!” said Trump, as he declared “a national energy emergency” to accelerate permitting of oil, gas and power projects; doubling down on fossil fuel reliance in the US— echoing Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s cat calls, and reflecting our locals Shane Jones & ACT Party.

Article: May 2024 NZ Herald

Another example: Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement (PCA) today is the manifested form to our government’s ongoing shady hints that it’s ignoring the PCA.

Remember: Trump wasn’t as bold in his first term either

Yes, NZ has dramatically dialed back its climate policies and reversed environmental progress in one short year – cancelling EV car subsidies, cancelling cycling and walking initiatives, lowering CO2 emissions standards for imported vehicles, freshwater pollution, cancelling the hybrid engine / climate friendlier Kiwirail i-Rex ferries etc.

Stark warnings that we can’t meet Paris Climate Agreement obligations at this rate – and could face a $24b penalty in 2030 – fall on deaf ears.

In fact, the government’s first report in December last year failed to include any plans on how it would even try to fill the gap.

Hardly a sign of confidence on our government’s intentions towards the Paris Climate Agreement.

It’s 2025, after all, and changes take many years to effect.

Another point – Trump declared there are only two genders today: male and female – echoing much of this NZ Government’s more discrete – but ever-present – positions on transgender.

Heck, Paul Goldsmith was so skilful he managed to find two individuals with a history of anti-transgender views, and who didn’t even appear to make the recruitment shortlist or pass standard HR processes5 – to take the positions of NZ Human Rights Commissioner and NZ Race Relations Commissioner.

Race Relations Commissioner Derby is a founding member of Jordan William’s Free Speech Union and previously said the “trans movement” cannot be tolerated.

There are more examples but I think you get the picture.

So back to the US – and why we should pay careful attention: it’s to learn.

What Trump and the new Republican movement did to lay the path to power for Trump and his allies was change the American right’s culture and values.

Think about it —

Donald Trump pardoned all the January 6 insurrectionists unconditionally today. That was viewed positively by MAGA.

Those released include the criminals who violently attacked the outnumbered Capitol Hill police – resulting in their violent beatings, brain injury, loss of an eye, death from a heart attack, death from injuries sustained from the attack, and two other cops dead by suicide afterwards.

The criminals are free now – and elated.

Is this the “my fellow Americans”, and honouring of service personnel and police that once more dominated the culture of the USA?

The USA has changed. And “fascism” is going to merge with the “greatest democracy in the world”.

Never say, though, it can’t all happen here.

Changing culture, sowing division, creating enemy groups – particularly within minorities, and spreading misinformation, misidentifying the root causes of economic stagnation or poverty so people e.g blame beneficiaries versus examine the wealthiest taking billions from the system etc. – is powerful, tried-and-tested stuff.

The patterns are already all here and we shouldn’t need them to be fully formed before we use the words “fascism” and realise the “junk tank corporate takeover” of government isn’t at all a positive development.

The full version of this article can be found on the Mountain Tui Substack.

42 comments on “America would never happen here! ”

  1. Mike the Lefty 1

    Importantly there is a much greater separation of government and the judiciary in NZ. You simply couldn't get a new PM pardonning his old crim mates here – ministerial pardons are uncommon in NZ as they are practically routine in US.

    • James Simpson 1.1

      I see no real justification for the Presidential Pardon, which is frequently subject to abuse.

      Its existence underscores the issues with the entrenched nature of the U.S. Constitution. The amendment process is onerous, requiring supermajorities in both Congress and state legislatures, which limits the America's ability to adapt to modern challenges and societal changes.

      This shifts significant power to the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court, which is left to reinterpret the Constitution to address contemporary issues. The reliance on unelected judges undermines the democratic legitimacy of the system and concentrate excessive influence in a single branch of government.

      • alwyn 1.1.1

        " The reliance on unelected judges undermines the democratic legitimacy of the system".

        So, are you advocating that we have elections in New Zealand for members of the NZ Supreme Court? Perhaps we could get the same effect by getting our Judges to accept the premise that Parliament is supreme and that Judges shouldn't play around ignoring a law because they don't personally agree with what it says.

        I'm not sure that the 42 KCs who claimed the right for lawyers to make the laws would agree though.

        Or wasn't it New Zealand that you thought could be affected by the "unelected judges" you disapprove of?

        • AB 1.1.1.1

          As you well know, the issue in the US is judges appointed by politicians, rather than selected and approved by a broad consensus of their professional colleagues. This means that the judiciary can no longer act as any sort of impartial constitutional restraint on the Executive or the Congress, because it is beholden to one or other political faction. I'm pretty much sure this is what James meant, though his wording is a bit unclear.

          However, it seems that this US-style mess is what you want. Because when the NZ judiciary attempts to impose constitutional restraint on parliament by considering legislation in the context of other legally-binding commitments the Crown might have made, such as (ahem) Treaties, you call it "making laws", which it isn't.

        • James Simpson 1.1.1.2

          I think AB answered well for me.

          I don't think the New Zealand question has any relevance to the issue. We don't have an entrenched written constitution that Parliament is powerless to amend.

          Our judges are unelected, but the laws which they are tasked with interpreting are very easily amended through the democratic process.

      • Mike the Lefty 1.1.2

        I would point out that the US is not alone in allowing presidential pardons. The practice also occurs in some European countries, notably France.

        However, Trump has certainly taken it to the limit by mass pardoning a bunch of crazed hoons and his contempt for US law and justice is such that he doesn't even care to hide it under the banner of "a miscarriage of justice". They are simply his supporters so he wants them freed.

        Now every right-wing hate and violence group in the US will think they can say and do what they like and can't be touched because Trump will bail them out if they get into trouble.

        They are probably right.

        By the way, having judges elected is a bad idea, IMO. As we have seen so many times before, the worst people tend to get elected, not the best. In the US where nearly every county official gets elected (like sherrif) you get some useless brain-deprived gits being re-elected term after term.

      • Craig H 1.1.3

        I think executive clemency is occasionally useful where the law is poorly written or the courts get it wrong, but should be used sparingly.

    • In my opinion, we shouldn't be looking for the exact same out fit and it'd be a mistake to.

      If you look at what the government has done in its first 100 days – a list I compiled a while ago – you will see that they reversed most of Labour's work

      Same as Trump undoing Biden Administration procedure.

      And when you look at the combination of the Treaty Principles Bill, Regularoty Standards Bill, Crimes (FI) Amendment Bill, restricting right to strike, enforcing NDAs in public servants, stripping away regulations that protect corporations, helping landlords over tenants, opening up NZ for sale and the like – we don't need a full replication to see it's the same motivations and impact in the end.

      Just my take

  2. gsays 2

    Yep, Biden has driven the bar even lower with his last acts as president.

    Pre-emptive no less!

    https:/www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8r5g5dezk4o.amp

    • Muttonbird 2.1

      Ugh, you'll agree with Jordan Williams who was on the radio yesterday afternoon 'both sides-ing' this by equating the pardon and release from prison of the Capitol rioters, with the pardon of Joe Biden's family.

      Despite that being the most dishonest of framings, no-one had him up about it.

      • gsays 2.1.1

        Did you catch up with my question asked of you, yesty on OM?

        • Muttonbird 2.1.1.1

          No, I didn't. In weka's vegan analogy, I'm the purist who won't stray from the path and you are the lapsed vegan who thinks a little bit of meat is ok, for health reasons…

          Like I said I'm done if, in order to be listened to, lefties must betray their convictions and legitimise what the opponents of their convictions demand. If not for activism and direct action, nothing changes.

          Not going back to that thread but I'm sure there will be another similar, soon.

    • It does indeed speak to the incoming fascism and the multiple warnings Trump and Musk made pre-inauguration to lock up and seek revenge on their political opponents.

    • Populuxe 2.3

      I mean, did you miss all of the outright threats Trump and cronies made that they would use all the instruments of government available to them to "punish" their critics and prosecutors? It's touch and go whether Trump et al will even respect those pre-emptive pardons.

      • joe90 2.3.1

        whether Trump et al will even respect those pre-emptive pardons.

        Probably not.

        .

        (e) The Attorney General shall evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement for each of the 37 murderers whose Federal death sentences were commuted by President Biden, and the Attorney General shall take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose. The Attorney General shall further evaluate whether these offenders can be charged with State capital crimes and shall recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities.

        https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-the-death-penalty-and-protecting-public-safety/

  3. CD 3

    The symptoms can appear, but American stye Fascism cannot occur. For that we'd need to have embraced Rogernomics as if it were like some kind of longed-for birth right. The reason all this snatch 'n' grab for personal wealth will fail is so simple that none of the professional manipulators can see it. They don't dare imagine it.

    It will fail, because they chose the wrong people. Characteristics of local resources be damned, they forgot the traits of the locals! They forgot about the locals because they can't see them. It's a permanent blind spot in the world view that, if acknowledged, would collapse the whole ideology. Check out Kiwiblog this morning with some guy building arguments to end Superannuation payments. He says, "all that matters is the economy". No my friend, the economy has never mattered above the irrepressible and unrulable spirit of a people, any people, anywhere, ever. Every few years politicians – and I use the term very loosely – are reminded that the people can only be dictated to so far. They'll chew off their own feet if they have to, but they won't bow to ideology past all reasonable interpretation of reality. So now they want to force us to vote for them, so they don't have to be reminded of their undemocratic methods. God these people are thick. Can't they just fly off to America and join in their ideal that's already well in motion? You never know, we might choose to trade with them anyway – or are they not really businesspeople either?

    Least of all – and I mean least as in the most impossible, not the least important – they'd have to eliminate maori almost entirely. And by elimination, I mean wipe any cultural footprint or hint of a shadow they have from everywhere, far beyond removing maori words from a ministerial letterhead, far beyond nullifying the Treaty. We have a multicultural population of 5 million, on a tiny land mass. Their economic ideology can't work in such a small historically aware location. Bummer for them.

    It can't ever happen, but we can experience some symptoms as listed, and it can reduce us to a "dust bowl" existence. Then they will leave as their type always do, and we get to start again from nothing. Far better to give away all the ideologies before we get ground down, and start looking at things as they are, seeing people for what they are, addressing how we engage and when, choosing what we engage with, and engaging constructively, regardless of what we could justifiably or legally get away with.

    • The point is being lost if we ignore the characteristics, and ignore the laws going in place that cement the same frameworks (restricting rights to work, amending OIA to sell NZ land and assets off, changing and seeking to change Treaty for corporate dominance, implementing neoliberal Regulatory Standards Bill, etc)

      Firing experts from Waitangi Tribunal and replacing them with Hobsons Pledge aligned folks, appointing a Human Rights/Race Relations Commissioner that failed HR processes but fit their ideology etc are significant points too.

      I think I know where you’re coming from though for sure and appreciate many of the points you make.

      Cheers

    • Populuxe 3.2

      Actually, ACT's Treaty Principles and Regulatory Standards Bills are exactly the sort of thing we've seen in the US adapted for local conditions. They are designed to give the government unfettered power, free of the judiciary and the Waitangi Tribunal, to do whatever they want.

  4. Kat 4

    Put simply this National party led (by the nose) coalition govt has to be voted out before too much more damage is done……I would bet the house that there is a real majority of ordinary Kiwi's that did not vote, and would not vote, for the unfolding political agenda that is happening here, right now in New Zealand….

  5. Darien Fenton 5

    Great writing thanks Tui. I look anywhere for hope now, including the marvellous sermon at post inauguration prayer service at Washington Cathedral by Mariann Budde with Trump and Co squirming as she pleaded for them to show mercy to everyone who is afraid. Link here ; forgive the ad. https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cn4mwe3lk9wo

  6. Jenny 6

    Far Centre Extremists who refuse point blank to take on banksters sucking $billions out of our economy every year, even during a pandemic, Far Centre Extremists that make captain calls to cancel wealth taxes, leave the door open for the Far Right

  7. Wonderful. <i>"Good people on both sides"</i> all over again, and even faster this time.

    How'd that work out for you? Still confident about CNN?

    Good. As the Bishop of Bath and Wells said <i>"I hate it when people pay up"</i>

    • Muttonbird 7.1

      ^ Could someone please translate this crap?

      • Incognito 7.1.1

        Looks like Tom Hunter accidentally used his SM/SPAM details and intended to submit this eye-opening insight somewhere else. Given that it was after midnight he’d obviously turned into a parsnip.

  8. GeePee 8

    To have any real hope Labour needs to become………. ahem Real Labour. That will require a refocus and a move away from giving identity based causes overdue prominence.

    Don't take my word for it. Here is what Thomas Picketty and Michael Sander say progressive center left parties worldwide must now do;

    “The American philosopher Michael Sandel and the French economist Thomas Piketty are among the world’s most influential political thinkers. In their writing on inequality and the moral limits of markets, both are critics of the neoliberal order that has governed the West for the past few decades, and of the capitalist system that has facilitated the savage iniquities of the global economy. In May 2024, they met at the Paris School of Economics. The US election was six months away, but the spectre of Trump was present throughout the conversation between the two thinkers.

    “Trump’s victory seemed likely to me then,” Sandel recalled to the New Statesman, the day before the inauguration, “mainly because the Democratic Party had failed to address the legitimate grievances of working people and voters without university degrees.” When Kamala Harris inherited the nomination from Joe Biden, Sandel urged her, in a piece in the New York Times, “to break explicitly from the neoliberal version of globalisation that had brought growing inequality and decades of stagnant real wages for most workers”. The only way of defeating Trump, he felt, “was to speak convincingly to the widespread sense of disempowerment and to offer a bold project of democratic renewal”.

    What the left needs, according to Sandel, is a “political vision that combines populism and patriotism – a radical critique of inequality and unaccountable, concentrated economic power (that’s the populism) and a greater emphasis on community, solidarity, and our mutual obligations as citizens (that’s the patriotism)”. It is a mistake, he argued, for the left to “cede patriotism to parties of the right”. (New Statesman, Uk, 23-1-25).

    See; https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/01/the-left-after-trump-michael-sandel-thomas-piketty

    It's a fair question to ask whether overly middle class NZ Labour is up to it though.

    • Muttonbird 8.1

      That's weird, nowhere in the quotes you provided, and most likely in the article you linked to (which I skim read), does Sandel or Picketty mention "identity based causes", or anything close to it being the cause of the apparent and overstated demise of the left.

      Any mention of "identity based causes" is a massive red flag for me that you are a RW concern troll.

      Perhaps what you mean, and I'm being really generous here, is that the NZ Labour Party needs to become more politically radical and sure of its convictions. No argument there to a point, but why the need to bash minorities when making that plea?

      • weka 8.1.1

        don't know where you've been, but people have been arguing that Labour are too focused on identity politics for a very long time. Left wing people. On TS.

        • weka 8.1.1.1

          it's a neoliberal trope to suggest that someone making that argument must be a RW concern troll.

        • Muttonbird 8.1.1.2

          I've been here. I know people have been arguing. They're not left wing people though.

          And that is not what I asked @8.1. Sandel and Picketty simple do not mention identity politics.

          In my experience identity politics only matters to conservative people, they alone name it and are triggered by it.

          • weka 8.1.1.2.1

            one of the problems for the left is this purity thing. Yes, there are people here who are centre left rather than left, or whatever, but in this context 'left' has a broad meaning.

            Of course, one could argue that the prioritising of identity politics over class politics makes someone not left as well, but those liberals all still vote on the (centre) left, which is a good thing.

            In my experience identity politics only matters to conservative people, they alone name it and are triggered by it.

            I'm sorry you are so ignorant of what is happening on the left now.

          • GeePee 8.1.1.2.2

            You have misread what I said. I argued identity politics should not be given undue prominence.

            Picketty and Sander argue redistributive economics that mark a break from neo-liberalism are more important. In their book of essays they also argue these should be aligned together with strong renewable and environmental energy policies as being of major importance to winning back voters who used to be the base for progressive parties.

            I agree.

            Ipso facto that means other policies need to take more of a back seat.

            I have voted Labour and Green for the past thirty years but see a need for a realignment as spelt out by Picketty, Sanders and others. I have never voted National or NZ First and I detest ACT.

            While you are in a mood to spray around unfounded dross about me being "neo-liberal" feel free to pop over to The Daily Blog and make the same accusation to Bomber. He has been saying pretty much the same thing, but far more vehemently, for ages now. And he pulls no punches in calling it identity politics.

            Should be a popcorn riveting exchange.

            Also that well known “neo liberal” (ha ha) Sarah Graham critiqued them viscerally almost four years ago in that right wing publishing bastion the Marxist Left Review (August 21, 2021)*

            • The Failure of identiy politics: A Marxist analysis
            • GeePee 8.1.1.2.2.1

              Oops! It should read Sarah Garnham (not Graham).

              And yes I (that's me and no one else) raised the need to downplay identity politics.

              And by identity politics I mean as it is specifically defined by Garnham in her paper. Definitely not as deemed to be a 'red rag' by Muttonbird, or as defined by ACT, or ATLAS or the US Republican Party or similar.

            • Muttonbird 8.1.1.2.2.2

              Yeah, you said the left need to drop identity causes (supporting minorities and people disadvantaged by Western conservative convention), and offered Sandel and Picketty to back up your claim which they certainly did not.

              I don't know if you are a RWNJ claiming to be old school Labour or not, to be honest sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, lol.

              You've swaggered in telling off the socially conscious left in your first post so don't be surprised if commenters question your motives. It makes me wonder if you are a multi account. While respecting anonymity I do think commenters who have given many, many, many hours to The Standard are entitled to know if an account is returning under another username.

              But good luck here, and never instruct people to go talk to Martin Bradbury.

  9. Psycho Milt 9

    Denial of anthropogenic global warming and a corresponding interest in maintaining fossil fuel usage are features of right-wing politics in general, not "fascism." And the fact that humans are all either male or female is recognised by many on the left, not just the right. Claiming these things are evidence of "fascism" is no more useful than right-wingers claiming anything vaguely left-wing is "communism."

Leave a Comment