Originally Posted by
FTG
To the objective observer, it is clear that since inception, TOP has been, and still is, ideologically "confused".
No wonder some on this thread also appear confused and struggle to articulately communicate what, if any, TOP's foundational principles are.
Ideological confusion in a political party is often a strong signal, that really, they are just attempting to be a populist movement, rather than a party based on a suite of rock-solid principles.
This internal confusion then permeates all the way through to the electorate candidates, party faithful, casual & fleeting supporters (swing voters) and of course, the general voting public. In reality, Policy/Principle wise, the party will likely be "all over the map".
From a PR perspective, TOP attempts to position themselves as a centrist party - boldly declaring, "We are neither on the Left or the Right". Again, this is straight from the 'Populist Political Party Playbook'. I venture to say that the few TOP supporters have swallowed that hook, sinker and line. Fortunately, 97% of voters saw the spoiled bait for what it is.
Another tactic commonly deployed by political party's attempting to 'land-grab' from the centre of the political spectrum is, to hijack the use of descriptive labels that have a very wide appeal. The labels "Progressive" & "Liberal" are a good case in point. E.g. What voters would put their hand up & say that they don't want "progress"?
The word liberal derives from the Latin word liber, which meant FREE. So politically, and for many decades, a true Liberal (politically) was one who supported & promoted individual rights, civil liberties, free enterprise, etc. Today, however, the 'descriptive label hijackers' attempt to use the word liberal to promote their version of policies that are 'socially progressive", E.g. BIG Social Welfare programs.
So, despite attempting to claim a neutral/centrist position, TOP's policy platform very clearly places them LEFT of centre on the political spectrum. For those who can recall, akin to the Social Credit Party, in the 1980's.
Funny, I seem to recall Gareth Morgan once saying that there were a lot of things about the original SCP that he liked!