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Radical = redundent?
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A while back Michael McDowell said that the PD’s had to be radical or redundant. Radicalism really is a very strange thing for a party to stand for. Over on Samuel Bowman’s blog speaking about Labour new lowering of taxation policy. I made the point that this could damage the PD’s that if they lose their “low tax” party stick they haven’t got much else to sell. He agreed and said, “we shall see what counterproposal McDowell puts forward this weekend but it had better be seriously radical.”
This really perplexes me. Why has the PD’s got to be radical. This is not just something that Samual believes but also a great many of the PD party faithfully. Why the need to be radical. Just have your policies if they happen to be radical then so be it, but you should not aim to be radical.
This to me seems to stem from a lack of confidence in the PD’s in the quality of their own policies. Then they would not need to class them as radical as they think that to the majority of the people of
The PD’s like to consider themselves to be the libertarian (lite) party of
The electorate dislike two things. Increased Tax and decreased spending. But fail to see the connection between the two. While the sound of increased pensions sound good where it the money going to come from to fund these increases. Their probably is a variety of sources to get this money. But they require changes in the fundamental structures of the state. Privatisation of semi-states. Possibly demanding more efficentcies in the Civil Service etc etc. Yet we do not here any policies on these issues. We just have the auction politics.
Auction politics is by it’s nature all things to all people. More spending here less taxing here etc. It is devoid of much ideology. By engaging in it they are losing their belief that their vision is the one that the people will want and vote for.
I think by “radical”, McD means the party hs to be continually looking for solutions etc. etc. I do agree that he was a bit suprised by Rabitte over wkd. And he’s stated the party ain’t liberatiarian. Conference will be interesting.
Have been ranting about this already, but I’m good for some more.
Here’s the problem with ‘radicalism’ - in order to be radical, you need to have an ideal; and in order to have an ideal, then you have to be idealistic. I know these are gross simplifications, but look at the track record - with the possible exception of café bars (and I say ‘possible’ because the associated idealism - that of breaking the influence of the vintners on Irish politics - could well have been inadvertent) - Michael McDowell has proceeded to run roughshod over entities of state in the name of justice, but in fact compromising the very state he seeks to protect.
This morning - seven day arrests and the right to silence is attacked, where judges may be permitted to infer guilt from silence - Outrageous! What about the presumption of innocence? Only when the Minister deems it appropritate (read Frank Connolly). The separation of powers? Never mind that - McDowell tells the judges what to do. These efforts are in McDowell’s mind populist measures - crime is an issue, and he’s the action man fixing it. McDowell thinks that the voter thinks ‘who cares about the law, I’m not a law breaker, so the harder the laws are the better.’ That he may be right is irrelevant. It is inhumane, illiberal, and fundamentally unjust. But maybe he can eke a few votes out of it. And if crime really isn’t an issue, he’ll make it one by ratcheting up the media hype around Ireland’s murder rate, with Paul bloody Sunday World Williams in tow, cranking every sensational tid-bit out of the most mundane of crime stories.
It isn’t so much that they are losing their soul, but they are losing their identity. I believe that they still years for a separateness, and therefore their intent remains solid. But their actions, and their lust for power undermine everything that those intentions seek to achieve.
They are so irrevocably tethered to Fianna Fáil that the policies begin to appear indistinguishable. There is no separate identity, and even if one were to be voiced, the voter will always assume that a vote for the PD’s is a vote for the government, and ergo for Fianna Fáil.
The rage abateth not
A spell in opposition, esp without FF would do no harm.
I suspect they’ll get sucked back into Fianna Fáil. They spoke of this last time out, and Harney doubled the seats. I can’t see any increase on the PD seats this time out. I’m only afraid that as the polls become increasingly clear for McDowell, he’ll become more and more desperate. Next thing he’ll build a wall around Dublin South Central and call it the New Prison. No one in DSC was ever going to elect a PD anyway