Person in Make America Great Again Hat
It looked only like any posed political pic. The politician, in this case the National Party's newly elected leader, Todd Muller, standing by a bookcase. So far so normal. Information technology wasn't even a new photo.
Except that clearly visible in the lower left-mitt corner was a powerful slice of political symbolism – a red Brand America Great Again (MAGA) hat.
Nothing to meet hither, Muller responded when questioned about the lid's significance. It was but a souvenir from Donald Trump'due south America; he had Hillary Clinton memorabilia too.
The debate speedily became tribal: the offence taken reflected the left's obsession with identity politics, information technology was a Wellington beltway result nobody else cared nearly, the hat was about nothing more than than Muller'southward interest in U.s. politics.
Muller has subsequently said he found Trump'due south way of politics "appalling" and the lid will be retired from view. That it didn't necessarily reflect Muller's own views was possibly why the Labour-led government didn't play on the controversy.
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Only people were curious, which meant Muller was forced to spend too much of his commencement weekend equally leader explaining information technology.
Suddenly he was non in control of the calendar. And if he'd really wanted to convince people the hat didn't matter he might have been better off, every bit the Islamic Women's Council advised, to leave it at home. The council's Aliya Danzeisen put its case succinctly:
That lid represents the deprival of the liberty of beliefs. That hat represents the denial of minority voices. That hat represents the vitriol that has been harming that nation and has been harming the world for the final 4 years.
From whichever perspective, the hat – and Muller's defense of owning information technology – brought his political judgement into question.
Perception is reality in politics
Understanding the power of symbolism in politics is important for whatever leader. It was why people cared about the hat but not the Clinton campaign badge Muller too brought back from his trip to find the 2016 U.s.a. election.
The MAGA lid has become a symbol of violence, division and exclusion. Those were not the values Muller ready out in his speech accepting his party's leadership last week:
Fundamentally I don't believe that for each and every i of us to do improve, someone else has to be worse off.
Nor were those the values that will re-engage women, ethnic and religious minorities who, according to recent opinion polls, are amongst those who have shifted their support from the National Party to Labour.
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Swinging voters are by definition in the middle. They are non part of Trump's base of operations. But if they are non role of Muller's New Zealand he won't get to form a government later the election in September.
Muller knows who these people are. He wanted to appeal to "the people who help their elderly neighbours with the lawns on the weekend, the dad who does the food stall at the almanac school fair, the mum who coaches a bear on rugby team".
Some of them are the sorts of people MAGA rallies target.
No ordinary souvenir
New Zealand politics can be passionate, of course. Racism and misogyny have their influence. In 2004, then National leader Don Brash showed the power of divisive rhetoric with his "Orewa speech communication" that declared Maori privilege. He took his party's poll ratings from 28% to 45%.
Brash confronted what he called a Maori "birthright to the upperhand". In fact, Maori politics was concerned only with a birthright to exist Maori.
For women, for ethnic and religious minorities, and for whoever else there might be political mileage in vilifying, the MAGA hat also represents the denial of a birthright to be who they are.
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The MAGA hat and the movement that wears it stand for a denial of the liberty at the heart of the American dream. The message is clear: you don't belong.
That is why the MAGA lid is no ordinary symbol of partisan politics. And it takes on a detail resonance when displayed in a parliamentary office. It represents the violent expression of anti-democratic ideals.
At another tactical level, the hat is problematic. If National's biggest obstacle is Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's well-regarded then far effective response to the COIVD-19 pandemic, why go too shut to a president whose leadership of the pandemic response has been amidst the near ineffective in the earth?
Because in politics perceptions count. So likewise do distractions. Like the perception that Muller is trying to create that Ardern's cabinet is total of "empty chairs" – and which may be gaining early on traction.
But encouraging the perception that he has a wide, inclusive and distinctive vision for economic recovery was what Muller most needed to be doing right away. That would have been more effective than defending his ownership of a chapeau that is emblematic of the opposite of each of those aspirations.
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Source: https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-make-america-great-again-hat-makes-a-dangerous-souvenir-for-foreign-politicians-139296
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