We're not like the French. We may drive our tractors to Parliament, but we never burn them in front of it like the French would. We might protest, but we never storm the Bastille and hang them from the rafters. No, that's just not the Kiwi way.
The Kiwi way is to cast a protest vote - we love our third party political insurance because we don't want either of the two main political parties to have all the power. They already abuse what we give them.
We've done this before and we did it with a vengeance. I remember the height of the Social Credit Party back in the late 1970s and early 1980s when New Zealanders had lost all faith in their politicians and electoral system. Politicians were probably at their most despised ranking since surveys had begun, and the broken election promises and the contempt these politicians held for New Zealanders was despicable.
Since those heady days, the politicians have managed to scrape themselves off the bottom of the barrel to some degree, but the hubristic fibrosis our present political leaders suffer from has again antagonised our nation to its core.
Will that leave an opening for the Labour/Green Party coalition? Not likely. The public have been quick to see through the hypocrisy these parties have shown when they feigned democracy by supporting the most recent citizens-initiated referendum, yet ignored previous referenda when they were in power.
I imagine they are hoping the public will suffer from amnesia over that one, but I don't think so.
This election I see no paramount, all-imposing issue that will divide the people down party lines. The economy, while important, has been reasonably well managed by National under the circumstances, and Labour shows few signs of making any huge impact there.
Other issues will arise, but they will pale into insignificance as the people rebel against the persistent one-finger salute our politicians have given them when they have directed their wishes upon politicians in recent referenda. The people spoke but they were ignored.
We've also come to realise that choosing between the Coca-Cola and Pepsi parties has become boring. We have tired of the continual elect and then regret scenario. We want more checks and balances and we want our politicians to do what we tell them to do when we think it's important to do so.
People will be looking for a political party where they can cast their protest vote and in a way that may force more democracy into our political system - a way that will make our politicians pay the people more respect.
That any Prime Minister should have the audacity to proclaim he will not be listening to the will of the majority of New Zealanders is an outrage but, up until now, past and present prime ministers have got away with it.
It's now time for New Zealanders to send a message and they can do that at the ballot box - using the same finger our Prime Minister has recently been offering to the people.
Steve Baron is a Wanganui-based political scientist, co-editor of the book People Power and the founder of Better Democracy NZ.
