Roger Partridge: Still Admiring the Emperor’s New Clothes

Why loyalty outlasts the evidence

A year ago this week, my Quadrant column, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – written before this Substack launched – asked a question that irritated more people than it persuaded: How could so many thoughtful conservatives, people who once championed limited government and constitutional norms, support a president whose actions so plainly contradicted those principles?

The answer drew on Jonathan Haidt’s research into moral psychology. Trump, the column argued, had tapped into something deeper than policy preference – loyalty, authority, sanctity – the moral foundations conservatives weight more heavily than liberals. Facts that contradicted the tribal narrative would be reinterpreted or dismissed. “Short-term pain for long-term gain,” supporters would say. Or: “He’s playing four-dimensional chess.”

Peter Dunne: Politics is about the acquisition and retention of power

A common feature under both the old First-Past-The-Post electoral system and MMP today is that New Zealand has never been subject to dramatic, prolonged shifts in political direction.

While various governments over the years have made bold changes, the process has usually been one of gradualism. If one government goes too far in one direction, the next government either mainstreams or moderates that change. Equilibrium is always restored after swings in the political pendulum. What has therefore evolved has been a process of natural correction rather than radical change.