Anger at wrong target

Where does this anger come from?

. . . Two windows were broken at National MP Michael Woodhouse’s central Dunedin office early on Sunday and lit Molotov cocktails were found outside the National Party office in Invercargill.

A brick was thrown at a picture of Mr Woodhouse in the window at the Princes St office. A window on the Jetty St side was also broken.

The vandalism was ”unfortunate and unnecessary”, Mr Woodhouse said yesterday.

”It coincided with some serious disappointment and disgruntlement that some might have had after Saturday night. But I certainly don’t think it has been anything to do with [any] political party.”

”I want to know my staff feel confident in going to work,” he said. 

This was an act of vandalism which wasn’t necessarily politically motivated but posts and comments on blogs and comments on news websites indicate real anger from the left.

University of Otago politics lecturer Dr Bryce Edwards said he expected the ”political temperature to heat up in this term”.

There was a ”huge amount of emotion” among those on the political Left after National’s sweeping election victory, ranging from ”demoralisation to anger to incredulity”, he said.

”[The vandalism] shows a very exaggerated and extreme outcome of how many on the Left are feeling, but it doesn’t typify it.”

Mr Woodhouse was the victim of those ”lurching for a target to express their disappointment at”, Dr Edwards said.

Demoralisation is understandable but the anger and incredulity show a distinct lack of insight.

I cried when it became obvious how badly National was going to be defeated in 2002 and I cried more the next day.  I was very upset but I wasn’t angry nor was I surprised.

It was obvious well before the election that National hadn’t learned from its defeat in 1999,  nor had it learned how to run campaigns under MMP. On top of that caucus was divided, had too many MPs who were part of the government that lost the previous election and it wasn’t looking like a government in waiting.

We hadn’t earned a win.

These were all factors in Labour’s loss on Saturday. It could have learned from the mistakes National made in the run-up to the 2002 election but it didn’t.

They hadn’t learned from their defeats in 2008 and 2011, they didn’t run a cohesive party vote campaign, there are too many old and too few new MPs and they haven’t looked like a government in waiting.

Anger is part of grief but if, as Edwards says, the left is angry they shouldn’t be targeting that at National for winning. They should be looking inside to understand why they lost.