The road to political reform has never been an easy one. Real change seldom happens without widespread death. Today on the back of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the USA we see an outpouring of rage against a conservative right which moves from strength to strength. In the UK there is widespread outrage at the Tory Government. Both are countries that operate an effective 2 party state due to an outdated first past the post general election polling system. In a FPTP election a constituency is frequently represented in Government by a candidate who is NOT voted for by the majority of voters. Proportional representation would open the door to smaller parties, but the ruling parties are never going to give up the system that keeps them in power without a fight.
Wealth and power tend to concentrate in fewer and fewer hands over time. To redistribute wealth requires the shattering of existing power structures. This demands events such as the destruction of the Roman Republic, the French Revolution or the first and second world wars.
Even in a modern democracy with multi-seat proportional representation it is unusual to see a fundamental shift in ruling power structures. Ireland has existed only since 1921 as the Free State and subsequently became a republic in Easter 1949. For 100 years the country has been dominated by two parties; Fianna Fáil and the party now called Fine Gael. Today they lead a ruling coalition with the support of the Green Party. Prior to this century it was unthinkable that the two parties could serve in Government together as they were fundamentally divided by civil war rivalry. Over the years one or other party ruled with the support of the third largest party, Labour, or with an assembly of independents or smaller parties. But at a very fundamental level Ireland was governed by a single shared ethos, a Catholic social democratic government.
Any significant inroads made by parties to the right or left have been addressed by a slight repositioning of the two main parties. Two significant events have changed this dynamic and we are on the threshold of seeing a new party in Government; Sinn Féin. The events were firstly the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland which shifted Sinn Féin from a position of representing terrorists/rebels to becoming a viable political entity. Their reformation in Northern Ireland paved the road for their growth in the Republic of Ireland and their positioning as a genuine all Ireland party.
The second event was the night in January 2009 when Brian Cowen assumed the undisclosed debts of the Anglo Irish Bank as sovereign Irish Debt, plunging the nation into economic crisis and turning over control of the nation to a Troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. The fallout from these events stripped Fianna Fáil of much of its traditional power base. Sinn Féin stepped into the void.
Sinn Féin now dominates the left in Irish Politics, and they find themselves fundamentally opposed by Fine Gael, who have maintained their strength by moving more and more to the right. From being a social democratic party under Garret Fitzgerald in the 1980’s they have now shifted to a position that aligns them with the UK Conservative Party and Northern Ireland Unionist parties. They favour big business at the expense of the poor, landlords over tenants, property developers over budding home owners. Their rhetoric speaks of “benefit cheats” waving the “stop being poor” flag with their highly misguided “Welfare cheats cheat us all” campaign.
They also use the age old strategy of the serpent’s egg in an attempt to scare swing voters from electing in a Sinn Féin majority.
The UK Conservatives famously used the “New Labour New Danger” campaign in 1997 to keep Tony Blair out of government against the run of the polls. They depicted the Labour Leader on posters with “demon eyes”.
Fine Gael have basically taken Brutus “Serpent’s Egg” soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and rendered it as the key messages they disseminate in social media about Sinn Féin. They tell us the party is ruled by a secret cabal who meet in dark rooms out of the public eye.
They tell us that Sinn Féin are only pretending to be nice to get into power. Once in power their true nature will be revealed.
Caesar, like Sinn Féin, climbed the ladder out of lowliness and they tell us that once in power Sinn Féin will turn their backs on poverty and will accept the bribes on offer. Well, as the serving government partner I’m sure Fine Gael know all about what bribes are on offer. In fact some of their members have been caught on camera doing just this very thing.
Fine Gael remind us that Sinn Féin is represented by men and women who took up guns in the 1970’s. What they fail to mention is that Fine Gael was founded by men and women who took up guns from 1916 to the 1920’s.
Fine Gael is attempting to kill Sinn Féin in its shell. I guess that is easier than internal reform.
Brutus: Julius Caesar Act II, Scene 1.
It must be by his death: and for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
but for the general. He would be crown’d:
how that might change his nature, there’s the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
and that craves wary walking. Crown him? that;
and then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
that at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
remorse from power: and, to speak truth of Caesar,
I have not known when his affections sway’d
more than his reason. But ’tis a common proof,
that lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,
whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
but when he once attains the upmost round,
he then unto the ladder turns his back,
looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
by which he did ascend. So Caesar may.
Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
will bear no colour for the thing he is,
fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
would run to these and these extremities:
and therefore think him as a serpent’s egg
which, hatch’d, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,
and kill him in the shell.
-=o0o=-
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