The election was defined by the politics of disgust rather than any fundamental shift, writes BREDA O'BRIEN.
I HAVE a modest proposal for Fianna Fáil. Immediately before the next election, they should declare that they have done such damage to Ireland that the only possible reparation would be to disband. Then, current and aspiring FF TDs could run as independent candidates, and once again, sweep to victory.
Well, it worked for the Progressive Democrats in the local elections. Political commentators regularly speak about the sophistication of the Irish electorate. Sophisticated, my eye. The conventional wisdom on the last election is that the electorate wished to deliver a stinging rebuke to Fianna Fáil. Fair enough. But how short a memory would you have to have to forget that it was Progressive Democrats-style economics that exacerbated the damage? Short enough to forget that the newly minted independent local candidate used to be a PD?
There is no doubt that people resent deeply the measures brought in to try to stop our descent into the economic abyss. They resent the levies and blame the Government for pay cuts. However, no matter who was in power, we are in the sorry situation that there is little alternative. In fact, worse is still to come, and that would be true no matter what parties were in power.
Therefore, the mad scything of Green candidates makes no sense at all. Patently, the Greens did nothing to get us into this mess. The loss of local authority seats is particularly pointless if payback for Fianna Fáil was all that was at issue. The Greens are one of the few parties with a vision for local government.
Historically, they have never been tainted with the corruption that has plagued councillors. In order to get at those who caused us to founder economically, we wipe out the only party with a coherent vision of how to deal with an even greater crisis, climate change. How sophisticated is that? The alternative cliche about Irish politics is that it is personality-driven. How then do you explain Nessa “I stepped out and I stepped in again” Childers? She originally defected from the Labour Party to the Greens. If she had stayed with the Greens, in all likelihood she would not have even won a council seat. Yet she managed to bag a Labour seat in the European Parliament. Same personality, different brand.
I would also hesitate about seeing the results as part of a serious swing to the Left.
For example, if the European elections were rerun in the morning, would Eoin Ryan get his seat back? Sure, people are fed up with Fianna Fáil, but many people felt sympathy on a personal level for Ryan. Not that I begrudge Joe Higgins his success. I am only sorry that his mordant wit will be deployed in the European Parliament (at least until the next general election) where doubtless, a great deal will literally be lost in translation.
The small left-wing parties do have the advantage of being driven by genuine passion, and the electorate did respond to that. Unfortunately, the other factor driving their success may have been that people basically do not care about local elections, because they perceive them as making little difference.
Sadly, Irish people have this contradictory desire to have high levels of services but low taxation. The kind of benign acceptance that, say, the Swedish have, that the state should have a significant involvement in virtually every aspect of life, is practically non-existent in Ireland. That may be a combination of a post-colonial suspicion of authority, and partly bitter experience of the unholy mess successive governments have made of such basic services as health and education. In short, a serious swing to the left is about as likely as it was that the ’70s would be socialist.
There are many aspects of the socialist credo that are very attractive and would, if implemented, make Ireland a better place to live. For example, there is a genuine concern for the poor, a welcome for other cultures, and a desire for equality. The left also generally take a serious interest in education, instead of just paying lip-service to it. However, one weakness in hard-left politics has been the neglect of small and medium-sized communities or institutions, like the family, religious bodies, and voluntary associations, all of which can play vital roles in linking people to the wider society.
Still, much about left-wing thinking encourages us to be less selfish, and that is positive. Yet it is hard to avoid the conclusion that voters voted in the last election largely as a negative exercise, more concerned with punishment than a vision for the future. Perhaps that is linked to the fact that in Ireland we “do” disgust well. Whether it be a genuine tragedy like the industrial schools, or a minor blip like a leaked Leaving Cert English paper, we queue up to be disgusted.
Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist, has done a lot of work on the socially bonding aspects of disgust. He is also fascinated by the opposite emotion, that of elevation, which he describes as a positive emotion triggered by witnessing people reveal their higher or better nature. Experiencing elevation motivates us to change our world for the better.
Obama capitalised on his ability to communicate hope and elevation. Although not quite Ireland’s Obama, George Lee succeeded not just because of his high public profile but because of his obvious sincerity. Although poles apart in personality from George, the self-effacing Maureen O’Sullivan was elected because she represented continuity with Tony Gregory, another person patently not in politics for personal gain.
Recently, it was fascinating to see the positive response to the Spirit of Ireland project, with its visionary ideal of Ireland as a potential leader in renewable energy. Whether or not that project ultimately proves viable, we desperately need a political equivalent, a long-term vision that motivates people and unites them in a common cause. Political ideology has never played a large role in Irish politics, and pragmatism is the closest we came to a prevailing philosophy.
Perhaps by the time the general election comes around, we might exercise some of that alleged sophistication in the way we vote, instead of just operating primarily out of a politics of disgust.