KEY POINTS:
At sixteen, George Washington - first president of the United States - copied by hand 110 Rules of Civility based on a 16th century code established by the Catholic Jesuits.
One of the founding fathers of the great American democracy, Washington learned at an early age the rules that would be a bedrock for his public life. He was a patriot, a soldier, a republican and a politician.
Prime among "Washington's rules" was the 110th:
"Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience," and the 58th, "In all causes of passion admit reason to govern."
These underpinned his devotion to civic virtue and constitutional propriety that made him the standout figure in US history.
Washington knew what it was to fight for freedom.
When he finally bestrode the US capital city that now takes his name, he did not tour military graveyards and eulogise over the blood spilt in defending freedom.
He honoured the blood shed by his fellow freedom fighters by ensuring the incipient American democracy had a constitution which guaranteed the rights of his fellow countrymen and their freedom of speech.
He preached about the evils of political parties and the constitutional necessity for politicians to be subject to the rule of law.
What a pity for New Zealand that our political leaders are not imbued with the same spirit.
We have a Labour-led Government that conspires with minority parties like United Future, NZ First and the Greens to effect constitutional change to preserve its own electoral self-interest.
We have a Labour-led Government that simply changed the law when a private prosecution was brought to challenge flagrant breaches of electoral funding rules by its party and others at the 2005 election, rather than face up to a process that could have led to having to justify its actions to the Supreme Court.
We have a Labour-led Government that now wants to constrain New Zealanders' rights to take concerted opposition to its policies by restraining the ability of political interests not yet represented in Parliament, and third parties to determine how much of their own money they are prepared to spend on advertising to make their voices heard above the clamour during election year.
We have a Labour-led Government that brutally impugns the credibility of public servants like Erin Leigh if they take issue with the public retailing of potential election policies like climate change, where political management by Helen Clark's chief of staff has taken precedence over rigorous factual analysis.
We have a Labour-led Government that would not even send a kind message to its former finance minister Sir Roger Douglas when he celebrated his 70th birthday in Parliament this week.
It took Australia's John Howard to demonstrate civility on that score.
What is this Labour Government so frightened of that it seeks to restrain the rights of others to open debate on the policies it introduces, or vigorously protest its actions?
How else do third party interests, which could range from teachers, doctors to business people, get their message across when the major party in power makes a practice of ramming through legislation without appropriate public consultation?
New Zealanders should be able to look to the opposition parties to challenge the party in power over the impact of critical policies.
But unfortunately, National's parliamentary vigour is displayed most when it is in its own self-interest to do so.
Hence, it has contested the Electoral Finance bill point by point, but does not vigorously probe legislation where it judges a robust stance might impact on its own electoral chances next year.
This so-called party of business has completely ignored Labour's prime climate change legislation which establishes an emissions trading regime which will impose considerable economic costs during the transformative phase.
National knows this but it will not probe the detail nor even expose the obvious flaws in background policy work because it fears that might jeopardise its chance of making a deal with the Greens if it needs to to hold power after next year's election.
Nor will National politicians raise their voices against NZ First and its leader Winston Peters' more pungent anti-foreigner sallies in case it spoils their chances of forging a post-election deal to get into power.
National will continue to probe the Government on scandals like the Erin Leigh and Madeleine Setchell affairs where Cabinet Ministers are now exposed as ruthless deniers of the rights of civil servants to do their jobs without fear of political interference. But it will not grapple with the underlying policies in case its own chances are spoiled.
This is the real tragedy for New Zealand. Foist with a unscrupulous Labour-led Government and a National opposition that fails to ensure policies are vigorously debated, New Zealanders now face the prospect of being charged as criminals if they spend more than $120,000 of their money to get their voices heard on critical issues next year.
This is not the sort of democracy that Washington fought for but it is one we should all fight against.
