Useful Idiots

The Syndrome of the Embarrassing Advocate

Both the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States are learning all about the Syndrome of the Embarrassing Advocate.  It's that feeling of hollow victory when someone who is a few sandwiches-short-of-a-picnic starts to advocate for a position you hold dear.

We have seen Republicans wincing when Donald Trump, a celebrity politician, has started to espouse conservative causes.   We in New Zealand can afford to laugh at Trump because none of the avian excrement is likely to foul our nests.  So he has been good for us--as a comedic figure can be.  After all, laughter is the best medicine, they say.  Thus, we were heartily amused when, being confronted by his ideological and philosophical about-faces, Trump (with a straight face, no less) justified them by saying, "Well, look, back then I was a business man,  Now I am a politician."  What a deliciously ironic turn of phrase.

And don't get us started on Hillary Clinton.  Democrats and Independents all over the country must be wincing every time she opens her mouth to change feet.  It pays to be sanguine about it all.  As Mr Bennett has said, "What do we exist for, eh Lizzy, but to make sport for our neighbours, and for us to laugh at them in their turn."

We have had our own Kiwi incident of the embarrassing advocate right here in NZ.
 It occurred during the anti-trade, Trans Pacific Parternship Agreement ("TPPA") brouhaha, followed by the Waitangi imbroglio.

Audrey Young, columnist for the NZ Herald, singled out our own tactical sophisticate, Hone Harawira as an Embarrassing Advocate.    Hone entered the lists to call for all good Maori to reject the TPPA.  Audrey Young suggests that it did a power of good for his opponents.

The linkage of TPP critics to Treaty of Waitangi activists settled the issue for many TPP doubters - the sort who think: "If Hone Harawira thinks the TPP is bad for the Treaty of Waitangi, it must be good."  Then we saw Harawira's clumsy over-reach in a bid to debate TPP with Key at Waitangi.

That, combined with the circus at Te Tii over whether the Prime Minister could say anything about TPP, resulted in a silent chorus of Kiwis saying "don't go".  Linking the Treaty to TPP has been a disaster for the left.

Even in his ignorance about what the TPP says, Harawira has helped Key.  Harawira went on RNZ's Morning Report on January 21 to claim Maori were near unanimous in not wanting the TPP to be signed on the basis there was "no mention" of Maori in the TPP, there was "no mention" of the Treaty of Waitangi in the TPP and there was "no mention" of the protections for Maori through the Waitangi Tribunal in the TPP.

The fact that he was wrong and the reverse is true did not change his opposition; he just found other reasons to oppose it, as did Labour when the final deal met almost all of its bottom lines.

Hone--NZ's own Donald Trump--without the money.  Pity about his alliance with Dotcom.

Herein lies the Achilles Heel of the Left.  The Left thinks in Marxist categories and conceptual frames.  Capital (property) lies within the grip of wealthy plutocrats, who plot fiendishly to oppress the weak and vulnerable (ordinary people).  The TPPA is a plutocratic plot to enslave us ordinary rubes.  Now, remember, none of this has to be proven or demonstrated.  To the Leftist mind, it is all self-evident.  Anyone who does not see it betrays himself as fellow traveller with the hated plutocrats.

Chris Trotter, the radical left's last serious voice, framed the struggle this way:

 Strategically, the struggle is between the progressive/patriotic forces operating within the twelve signatory states, and the defenders of the transnational corporations. Obviously, this puts the “Pro” forces at a serious disadvantage. Far from being able to pass themselves off as promoters of the public good, they will emerge from the contest as the big corporations’ fifth columnists, committed to defeating the patriots fighting to prevent the agreement’s ratification.

Notice his conception of the enemy: those who are "defenders of transnational corporations".  The big boys.  The capitalists.  The plutocrats.  The slimy deviants who secretly, surreptitiously pull the levers of monied power and ram TPPA down our vulnerable unprotected throats.

Poor old Chris's pre-historic world view has never been able to break through Marx's doctrine of class struggle.  What Chris has not yet grasped is that the large plutocracies, the transnational corporations, and the "big boys" are perfectly comfortable with high tariff barriers.  Such impediments to trade shut the small guys out from the market.  They protect the big, the lazy, the rent seekers, and the monopolists. But free trade empowers the little guys, and small businesses.  Free trade agreements mean that the kiwi bloke can export his goods and services overseas with few (if any) impediments.  Free trade agreements mean that the small guy is empowered to compete with the Fonterra's of this world.

Harawira and Trotter are the enemies of the small entrepreneurs.  To be fair, in their minds small businesses do not exist.  Capital is an undifferentiated enemy.  The only thing that matters is defeating the transnational corporations, for they ultimately control all capital.  It turns out they are the natural allies of "large business" which prefers regulatory impediments and trade barriers.  They indirectly facilitate and support market duopolies or monopolies in New Zealand.  Our national dairy monopoly is a perfect illustration.  Why should Fonterra care a fig about high tariff barriers?  It doesn't.  Not really.  It already has invested globally, owning dairy companies and dairy producers all over the world--all of whom would do better in their respective national markets if local tariffs on milk and derivative products remained high.

Chris and Hone--seriously foolish.  They so eloquently make the case for TPPA, whilst blissfully unaware of the unintended consequences of their passion.

Embarrassing Advocates.  Useful idiots, playing into the hands of Big Business.  Irony of ironies.