Add a Comment   Listen to Podcast   Up to OJB's Blog List

Learning from Failure

Entry 2376, on 2024-11-28 at 12:41:49 (Rating 3, Politics)

Everyone makes mistakes, don't they? Given that, what is the best response when you fail or discover that you got something wrong? Is it to blame someone else, or to blame the system (patriarchy, etc), or is it to look honestly at the situation and accept some (or all) of the blame yourself, and improve so you don't fail again in the future?

Well, that's obviously a rhetorical question, because any reasonable person would choose the "accept your own culpability" option, and improve as a result. But is that what commonly happens?

Of course, often it is not. There seems to be a major trend towards right wing politics around the world at this point in history, including the most obvious example: Trump's victory in the US. You might think at this point that the left would look at what they are offering and maybe adjust their approach to make it more popular, right?

Well, no. At least, not in the majority of cases. I have seen a massive amount of "feedback" from the losing side in the US, and none of them are thinking along the lines of maybe they had the wrong candidate, or the wrong policies, or the completely wrong approach to the election. Instead they are blaming the voters who they say are racists or misogynists, or claiming that Trump cheated in some unspecified way, or that the Republicans had access to more campaign funds.

These are all ridiculous. No doubt there are racists out there, who would not vote for a "person of colour" (which makes me wonder how Obama managed to win), but I don't think they are common. And there are also misogynist who would not vote for a woman, but there are plenty of people who are "reverse misogynists" who would vote for Harris because she is a woman, so that is unlikely to be a major factor.

And it's difficult to see how Trump could have cheated, considering the establishment bureaucrats running the election seem to be primarily Democrat supporters. Also, just saying "he cheated" is not helpful. We need details to take this allegation seriously.

And the Democrats were the ones who got most of the massive donations from big business, so they had far more funding. It is interesting that corporations now favour the Dems, because they are now the party of big business and the elites, and the Republicans are there for the working class (in theory, at least).

So when I see Democratic Party supporters saying they lost because Americans are racist, or misogynist, or ignorant, or evil, I just think: "you're not learning, are you". And that is a problem, because in the past I have been a supporter of the left more than the right, but as the left "lost its mind" pursuing a woke agenda, I had to swap.

So if I was an American I would have voted for Trump, not because I think he is the best possible person to be president, but because Harris was unelectable, in my opinion. The same thing has happened here in New Zealand, I voted for our libertarian party at the last election, but in the past I have voted for the left (Labour and Green) before they went woke. There is no way I could do that again, unless they change quite considerably.

To be fair, New Zealand's Labour (center-left) Party has learned to some extent from its extreme ideology under the tyrant, Jacinda Ardern. Several things have changed since the new leader took over, but not enough, and because they would need to form a coalition with parties which can only be described as totally insane (The Greens and Maori Party) voting for the left just isn't an option.

I think there is a place for parties with views I find insane, because other people might not see them that way, and everyone has the right to vote for who they think best represents them, but the left will find it hard to regain power unless they recognise that having extreme politically correct (AKA woke) views is unlikely to be a winning strategy at elections.

Just in closing, I strongly disapprove of one "insane" party having representation because of the ethnicity of their suporters rather than having any inherent merit. I'm talking about the Maori Party here, which has several MPs despite not winning any normal electorates or gaining 5% of the vote, like every other party needs to do. Having special electorates, just for a group based on race, which leads to an unfair advantage, is not real democracy.

Comment 1 (7786) by Seán on 2024-12-02 at 01:37:08:

Hello OJB - I am back after c.16 years, so you probably don't remember me nor our little debates.

But I read this first article on the feed now and I'm shocked, completely shocked. Your voting habits, your views. Even thought the style of writing was as I remembered it, I had to check that you were the author of this post, and maybe not someone else in case others has joined as blog authors. No, it was you.

The reason I came back here was because I heard a podcast with Dr. Richard Dawkins and thought of you and the old debates ;-). I have to find a religion-themed post now to share my thoughts, but on that topic I am sure you will not have gone 180° and found God. Definitely not. I have to do some work now, but I will be back to make a comment on that later (and not 16y later ;-).

Comment 2 (7787) by OJB on 2024-12-02 at 09:42:20:

I haven't done any religious themed posts recently because politics has become so "interesting". And my political views are definitely more to the right than 16 years ago! Keep reading, though, because I'm sure something of theological interest will appear. I guess the last religious post was this one which *almost* says religion is a good thing!

Comment 3 (7800) by Seán on 2024-12-27 at 20:00:36:

On the post here, it is difficult to find anything to disagree with. I have been following the US election rather closely since even before the Republican primaries and following the result, I would say your assessment is accurate.

For years I have been listening to the Financial Times' podcast "The Rachman Review", very sensible middle-of-the-road interviews on current affairs, especially international ones. But in the last 6 months I started to see a distinct lean to the left and Dems, and I started to see the so-called "liberal elite" manifest itself in the guests selected for this podcast series. There was this one immediately following the General Election (with some political correspondent journalists from the FT) and I was expecting to hear some humility and reflection on what went wrong for their favoured Dems. Instead it was Trump Derangement Syndrome in full swing and Chicken Little with the sky about to fall down on our heads. Talk about jumping the shark, Mr. Rachman. The host and the podcast just loses credibility when they show their true colours like this.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-will-donald-trumps-second-term-in-office-look-like/id1504048545?i=1000676011741

Back to your to post on the same topic, while the election was not a landslide for Trump, it was definitely a bigger win than what every thought. Fascinating is to see the direction and patterns of certain demographics as they shift towards the Republican Party, and also coupling this up with the past election results (2016, 18, 20, 22). It comes to your point about what the two parties come to represent today. I am also no fan of Trump, hoping Nikki Haley would win the primaries, and I often wonder if the trends and tilt to the Republicans and right-leaning conservative-leaning policies are more in spite of Donald Trump, not because of him. Or maybe it is a mix of both depending on the individual, like you, I would be in the former camp, but I can also see his appeal. The Republicans need to get clever now and foster these trends more in the direct they're heading, while the Dems flail around blaming others, especially the voters, all the while reasserting themselves as being in the rights and carrying on. Their sense of entitlement and superiority knows no bounds.

Comment 4 (7801) by OJB on 2024-12-27 at 22:11:40:

Thank you for rating my assessment as "accurate". Note that I don't really gain much satisfaction from this, because in the past I have always supported the center-left, but like so many others I feel like the left has abandoned me, rather than the other way around. The left has been captured by woke, post modernist, CRT BS ideology, and I cannot really condone that in any way.

You can leave comments about this entry using this form.

Enter your name (optional):
Enter your email address (optional):
Enter the number shown here:
Enter the comment:

To add a comment: enter a name and email (optional), type the number shown, enter a comment, click Add.
Note that you can leave the name blank if you want to remain anonymous.
Enter your email address to receive notifications of replies and updates to this entry.
The comment should appear immediately because the authorisation system is currently inactive.