Breaking up with Winston Peters

You know the weirdest thing about all this Winston Peters business? I actually feel disappointed in him, a man who has spent his political legacy railing against corporate influence and has demanded democratic transparency only for it to be now revealed that he has received massive corporate donations and has actively done all he technically can to hide that leaves me strangely disappointed in Winston. I listened to his claims of the winebox inquiry and watched with admiration his staunch taking on of the corrupt establishment of the corporate elite, and I agreed with many of his issues on foreign ownership and asset sales, but to see him obfuscate answers to such serious allegations in this manner is ugly and this isn’t the second time he has disappointed me. When he turned to race baiting Asians, that was the time I first realized it wasn’t going to work. Immigration does bring pressure to NZ – it always has, especially when the minority feels unwelcome in their new home, but you deal with that with compassion and understanding and resources into these communities to build strong links with every group, we don’t even hold classes for new migrants to help understand the social norms of their new country. You don’t respond to those challenges by evoking rage in one part of the community to ostracize and vent racist foam, which is exactly what Winston did.

So this is the second time he has disappointed me. Winston, I think it’s time we started seeing other people.