A tale of two rights

Say what you like about libertarians, but don't question their optimism.

At this year's annual conference, Act list MP Heather Roy has told delegates that they must achieve 8 percent in this year's national elections. Meanwhile the party is also considering bringing right liberal icon Roger Douglas back from the political sidelines.

Given the current state of the party in opinion polls, and the shift to the centre by the National Party under John Key, this seems a pretty tall order to say the least. Even in its 1990s hayday, Act only managed to gain about 6 percent support and it would no longer have any presence in parliament were it not for Rodney's Hide's Epsom seat.

The lack of realism among party faithful is highlighted by the fact that many of them would like to get rid of the populist Hide, even though he is the only member of the Party who has any significant level of public support.

Despite being consistently unpopular with mainstream voters, the party continues to attract a loyal following among the intelligentsia and the business sector. For a party which got under 2 percent of the popular vote in the last election, Act has no shortage of supporters in the NZ blogosphere and on campuses throughout the country.

Like the Libertarian Party in the US, Act has a strong following among educated males in their 20s and 30s, who are suckers for the rugged individualist rhetoric of libertarian ideology. Furthermore, the party seems to have plenty of campaign funding and a relatively strong media presence, with supporters like Business Rountable commentator Roger Kerr. If it can't get more than 2 percent support with all these factors in its favour, then you have to be pessimistic about its chances of getting 8 percent support this time round.

If Act is the try hard of New Zealand politics, then populist/conservative New Zealand First must be the promising underachiever who never fulfills its potential. Compared with it right liberal counterpart, New Zealand First has almost no support on the Internet, is usually ignored by the media (unless Winston Peters is making a controversial statement about crime or immigration) and appears to receives far less in the way of donations.

On college campasses there are few NZ First supporters, and the party doesn't even field candidates in many parts of the country.

However, despite these limitations, it consistently does better than Act in national elections, and on a good day is capable of winning 10 percent of the vote.

Thus the problems of the new right, are the opposite of those of the old right. The new right has a strong infrastructure and ideological base, but lacks popular support, while the old right has plenty of potential voters, but has almost zero support among the chattering classes and lacks a strong party infrastructure.