Jacinda Arden (NZ Labour party) puts out a press release saying that national elections will be postponed from 19th September to 17th October (here, here).
The white supremacists and Trump apologists around the world cry about the injustice of it all. How can she postpone and Donald Trump cannot?
Are these situations comparable? On one hand we have:
- An incompetent leader who lets hundreds of thousands of his own people die. At the time of posting, the death toll in the US was 173,516 deaths (here)
- A leader who contests the results of election before it even happened (here, here).
- A person who dismantles the post office in order to prevent mail-in voting (here, here).
- A person who is not above teargassing his own people so he can pose in front of a Church with an upside down bible in his hand (here, here).
- A person who is currently polling between 8 and 16% deficit (here) on his rival, who is not the first choice of anyone but the establishment Democrats and is hoping to be elected on the strength of being better than confused and demented child murderer and serial abuser currently in office. Imagine what would happen if the US had an alternative they could actually believe in.
- And on and on…
On the other hand, we have:
- A leader who decisively stemmed the flow of COVID-19 in her own Country, with 22 casualties (see here).
- A person whose party is currently polling at 53%, more than double of its nearest rival the National Party at 26% (here).
- A Prime Minister who, according to the NZ law is the person who sets the election date (here, here).
Therefore:
Jacinda Arden postpones the election, at the request of the right wing opposition. She is the person who sets the date in the first place. Her polls are strong, but slightly falling, therefore the delay does not work in her direct favour. She has done nothing to indicate that she would engage in voter suppression or that she would not accept the results.
Donald Trump wants to postpone election, because he is currently set to lose. It is not in his power to postpone elections, he does not set the date. He has a history of abusing power and undermining the legitimacy of the electoral process, he is actively trying to suppress votes and is publicly admitting it.
There is no comparison here. The snowflakery of the whitesupremacists is breath taking. There is no equivalency.