Why am I reveling in the fortune of a boring leader debate

OPINION: I watched the first TVNZ leaders’ debate with my adult daughter, who has become politically engaged in recent years, but has never seen one before. Because these debates have the reputation of being important markers in any election campaign and events themselves, she was infused with a borrowed enthusiasm before it began.

At the end of the hour, while I was sitting in the middle of bewildered bewilderment, she declared it “interesting.” I suppose if you had never seen one before it might have been that, but I found myself pining for the days of Peter Dunne and the worm.

I was relieved at the office the next day to find that I am not the only one disappointed.

These things are theater, with few real revelations and even fewer insights to settle and etch themselves in the conscience of the voting public. If they do, it is often bad things, trivial things. In this week’s case, it will be Judith Collins’ childish response when Jacinda Ardern explained that she didn’t need a tax cut.

How Collins must have wished he could snatch that “well, give it back then” out of the air as soon as it escaped his mouth. On second thought, maybe that’s not trivial. Perhaps it’s what voters will think about the most when deciding whether to put Collins in the prime minister’s office or not is wise.

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But the boredom that permeates this election campaign, no matter how “charming”! John Campbell believes that having them both in the studio is real. It may be the Covid cloud looming over the planet, or that we have very little energy and very little to give at this time in 2020.

And to be fair, there’s not much being thrown into the channel to get us excited. Ardern came in right at the start of the campaign and warned voters not to expect big political revelations, and Finance Minister Grant Robertson has publicly backed him.

National has the tax cuts and an alternative Covid border policy to replace the one that is serving us reasonably well. With very little to eat, we’re distracted by an accounting error here (Paul Goldsmith’s $ 4 billion miscalculation) and a spelling error there (TOP’s Geoff Simmons statement that he’s running in “Rongatai “, an electorate that does not exist), and by candidates treating their opposition’s public statements like a pick n ‘mix candy bar (Whanganui Harete Hipango National MP on Facebook).

We are the media, so if that is all we have, and the level of enthusiasm surrounding ACT leader David Seymour shows how desperate we are, we will take it. But six days before early voting begins, I’d like to propose something challenging and unconventional: Maybe, in 2020, boring is good.

I’m not saying this pick isn’t important, in fact RNZ podcast promotions have described it as “the most [insert superlative here] choice I can remember ”. And we’re all Chris Hemsworth or Gal Gadot in our own action blockbuster after all, aren’t we?

But a quick glance (through outstretched fingers) at the foreigner should ensure that we continue to quietly walk as we have done for the past seven months while the rest of the world goes to hell in a pandemic basket is a reasonable idea.

I say this even as another Covid group threatens to break out in Auckland (at the time of writing, six people and just over 30 close contacts). There will be a handshake on this as there have been all the little slips, flare-ups and flare-ups since the borders were closed in March.

Now compare our response to that of the United States, which has screwed up the situation in ways that can only make you cling to your head in abject horror.

A New York Times The investigation a few weeks ago raised the covers on a series of mistakes that cost thousands of lives in New York City. At the height of the first wave between March and May, chronic staff shortages in public hospitals led to hundreds of ‘toilet codes’, unnecessary deaths of patients who woke up from coma and were ripped off life support because there was no one to explain your situation.

The ridiculous bureaucratic decisions meant that the overflowing hospitals installed with fanfare by Governor Andrew Cuomo were empty. The 450-bed temporary facility at the Billy Jean King tennis center, for example, treated 79 patients in the month it was open, while doctors and nurses who came from across the country sat on Facebook on their phones for $ 2000 a day.

Significantly, the death rate in public hospitals in low-income areas is three times higher than in private hospitals in wealthy areas. Despite the inequalities that we know exist in our own healthcare system, we have not seen many Covid patients die because they couldn’t afford good hospital care.

Whatever the downsides, our system and our leaders have served us well in matters of life and death. Ardern relied on this in that TVNZ debate, going back to that in his last words.

We are also fortunate in another respect. We have a functioning democracy and there is no suggestion that a dishonest leader intends to change it after the votes are cast. I can’t believe I have to say those words, but Donald Trump’s continued refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose the US election in November made me do so.

Of all the ghastly things the man has said in the four years (is it only four years?) That he has held the White House, this is the one that really made everyone’s blood run cold, even the idiotic Republicans they defended. him until now.

So yeah, things are fine here in our little patch, and if that’s boring, we really shouldn’t care that much. Better that than the alternative.