Obama was right, and he wasn't even talking about us.

In his speeches over the weekend lining up for the Democrats in the mid-terms he talked of apathy being their greatest opponent, and he is right.

Trump is not the issue, what got him into power is.

And we can look right here at home and see the exact same thing.

The Taxpayers Union have done us all a favour with their figures on councils. The Herald has done us all a favour with their time-lapse camera on cycleways.

Our apathy is why we have, what we have.

We don’t turn out to local body elections, and the ideologues with the agendas know that. They can tolerate the three years of gasps, groans, upset and anger knowing full well that come vote time we won’t be there.

And they can carry on, harassed, but nevertheless, carry on.

The concept of having 5000 council workers on six-figure salaries, and by the way not just $100,000, but many in excess of $200,000 or $300,000, is literally astonishing.

Not that you don’t pay good people good money. But that they are paying thousands of people who may or may not be good, good money.

And the reason they are doing that is because of the fear mentality. They're power hungry, they're a cult of thinkers who's self-importance has reached new levels whereby they genuinely believe that councils do everything.

They're involved in everything. They need a say in everything. They need to be a part of everything.

And when you have that mindset, and an unlimited budget given you can raid the ratepayer annually with your usual excuses of cost-plus accounting, and you can rely on the apathy that sees most of us not bothering to vote.

Then you are off and running.

As to the cycleways, they are a functional, design and ideological crime.

They don’t work, they're not used, they damage business, they cost a fortune, and by in large are driven from fantasy, not common sense.

And yet millions upon millions of our dollars are tipped into them with no comeback, no accountability. Nothing.

So as Obama stands on stage arguing to get energised, surely the same thing applies to us.

How much time and energy do we want to put into moaning versus actually getting out there and voting?

Unless, of course, I've misread this. Unless, of course, we have overwhelming satisfaction with what councils do, the size of their operations, the number of salaries, and the grand vision they are foisting upon us.

But I suspect I'm not wrong. I suspect it's our laziness that allowed the madness to prosper.