DAVE ARMSTRONG
Three cheers for Donald Trump! Wow, I think I just became the most unpopular Leftie in Wellington. Yet last week was a momentous one in world politics. The TPPA, the free trade deal that our former prime minister spent a couple of years talking up as our economic salvation, was torn up by the protectionist Donald Trump who called it a bad deal.
Believe me, I am no fan of the Donald. Where do we start? How about his wall, his climate change denial, his defunding of Planned Parenthood, his ghastly misogyny, his advocacy of torture, and his appointing a bunch of very rich white men, some of whom are family members, to key jobs in his administration. However, by tearing up the TPPA, Trump firmly put an end to the belief that globalisation and unfettered free markets are the only way forward.
So what was the reaction here? Prime Minister Bill English, who supported the TPPA as much as his predecessor, was understandably disappointed. He is now hoping for some sort of trade deal with the US, but isn’t holding his breath.
And what about the Left’s reaction? Imagine if Bernie Sanders had been elected president and had torn up the TPPA. We would have been dancing in the streets and watching wall-to-wall Jane Kelsey extolling the virtues of ‘‘our Bernie’’ putting an end to the toxic deal that gave way too much power to American corporations.
Instead, opponents of the TPPA were very quiet with their celebrations, as if they seemed embarrassed by the death of the deal at the hands of Donald of Orange. Weren’t we all marching in the streets about this issue only last year? It was as if the Left were all at home ironing their clothes for the beginning of the school year so we didn’t have time to comment.
The reason for the reticence is, of course, that we see Trump as a nasty, right-wing xenophobe who just happens
Can’t we have progressive social policy without leaving the economy to the bailed-out wolves of Wall St?
to be dead right in opposing the TPPA.
And that’s the problem for liberal Lefties like me. We abhor Trump yet we also want an alternative to the unregulated free market so beloved by Hillary Clinton, Wall Street and every American president since Ronald Reagan.
Our reticence to say much about the TPPA reminded me of the mid-1980s when, after years of Rob Muldoon buttkissing the US, David Lange was elected prime minister. The Left were so busy