After 12 years in politics, it is refreshing to finally see things from an outsider’s perspective. It has also been eye opening, in that I have come to realise how my previous political bubbles were doing me more harm than good.

Election after election, so many of us within minor parties actually believed that we had a chance of crossing the 5% threshold to represent our supporters and policies within Parliament.  Yet election after election, we were disillusioned by the final results having never reached that 5% goal. In fact, in most cases, only 1 to 2% of the overall Party vote was reached.

People attract like-minded people.

It is human nature to surround ourselves with others who share similar values, principles, morals and beliefs.

Politics is no exception. People are attracted to political parties based on policies, values, principles and morals.

The problem starts when you become entrenched with those people, and politics gradually becomes one of your major focuses. Your political and friendship bubble envelopes you to the point where you can quite frankly, become delusional.

Within the political bubble, all you hear are positive affirmations about how well things are going. Because you are generally shut off from the rest of the political world, you and others within your bubble start to counteract any outside negative feedback by collectively justifying how great things are.

For example, when multiple polling results start to come through and they do not look favorable for your chosen minor party, those within the bubble will collectively claim that polls don’t mean anything, and that they are all rigged.

Or when you don’t get the expected turn out at your party’s event. It’s justified with excuses such as people being very sick at this time of the year, or there was another big event on which people must have previously committed to, and the excuses just keep coming. Political bubble people will often refuse to admit that their event was not successfully attended due to the fact that people were simply not interested in attending.

But wait….. it gets even crazier.

I have heard a particular quote used consistently by the same aspiring political leaders and candidates within the minor parties for many years.  I’m not talking about using the following quote over just one or two election cycles, but over 3, 4, even 5+ elections.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein.

The consequences of being politically trapped within a bubble are huge. We are talking about massive amounts of money, time and resources being politically invested year after year for nothing. One might say that it is wise investment as it is building a political foundation.

I call rubbish on that justification. Especially when there has realistically been no continual growth seen over past elections. In fact, what we have seen is minor parties come and go, regular changes within political Boards, and even previous leaders and candidates move around from party to party.

Other consequences are continual wasted votes, separation and division amongst the conservative based parties and voters, and the fact that the Christians, conservatives/right wing people of New Zealand continue to go without any meaningful representation in Government.

If only we could go around and pop all the political bubbles going on, and everyone could finally see the reality outside of their bubble.

Maybe then we might actually get one strong, united minor party to all vote for, and some desperately needed representation and change.