A race to be the nicest PM

Would you like your prime minister to be kind or nice? It’s a question that may once have been considered ridiculous. Leaders in business and politics were tough, driven, smart and visionary. No-one talked about being nice or kind.

Then in 2017 a common word popped up in an uncommon place – an election campaign. And our soon to be prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, created a brand that was relentlessly positive and kind.

She talked about wanting her government ‘‘to feel different’’ and admitted it would probably feel ‘‘curious’’ to bring kindness back.

Curious? Kindness in politics seemed unimaginable.

But the idea of developing kindness as a brand attribute in an election campaign was inspired. And I for one sighed with relief at the very thought of trying to make a decision without being forced to watch a slamming match across the media in the leadup to election day.

Since then, it has felt like it has been the right time for kindness. A massacre in Christchurch, unimaginable injuries suffered in the Whakaari/ White Island eruption, a life-threatening measles outbreak, and now the Covid-19 pandemic.

So last week when, to some, the mysterious new Todd Muller appeared in the public arena as the great hope for the National Party, I was amused – perhaps even bemused – to hear the word ‘‘nice’’ used repeatedly.

Muller’s suggestion of a non-combative election where he talked about ‘‘what was right for families, not what was wrong about the Government’’, is a very different kind of brand to the National Party of old.

All the while his colleagues repeated the word ‘‘nice’’ over and over again.

Muller may be part of a team, but the cult of personality that has taken over politics in recent years means that the pressure is on his personal brand. And building that brand started in earnest on Friday at his first press conference, where he couldn’t afford to get it wrong. After all, first impressions count.

And if that is true, our decisions will be based on reports describing his height, the thickness of his glasses, his provincial and agricultural roots. Oh, and being nice.

It’s hard to believe, but it sounds like we’re heading for an election dripping with positivity. Whether it’s being nice or being kind, it seems being a ‘‘good guy’’ is on trend.

Words such as kindness and niceness don’t inform us about policies, but they do evoke emotion and, let’s face it, elections are rarely won on rational decisions made by voters who have carefully studied each party’s policies.

How does nice play out in politics? How can you be nice when your main job as opposition is to disagree with the Government? And how does it compare with being kind?

For example, you can be kind but still be a strong leader. Going ‘‘hard and fast’’ to fight Covid19 might have been decisive leadership, but it was overlaid with a sense that, by doing so, the PM cared about our health. Could niceness be demonstrated in the same way?

It’s clear the battle for power has had a makeover, if politicians are now competing for who can be the nicest and kindest.

They are two quite simple words, but both will be used heavily to describe Ardern and Muller’s brands as they face off in the election in September.

They are values that could – and perhaps should – guide our voting decisions. The political philosopher Thomas Hobbes claimed ‘‘life is nasty, brutish and short’’. Perhaps this election, our political leaders will prove him wrong.