Ireland Elects Comrade Catherine
Ireland just elected Catherine Connolly without a real political contest. Strange? Maybe not, in a country where supporting Israel makes you an outsider and spoiling a ballot has become the loudest form of protest.
Catherine Connolly is the 10th president of the Republic of Ireland. We are not talking about polls or any sorts of shady projections, the votes have been counted, and she was won by a landslide. Let’s face it – with serious concern and a tiny little ray of hope, but we will look at it in the eye as we shall we always gaze at monsters, so we can defeat them in the long run.
But not before we will look at the context of this strange event that we were forced to name as elections.
Catherine ends up running against one (only one – I know how weird does that sound in Israel and many other parts of the world) opponent. Like the lack of candidates wasn’t enough, the other choice, Heather Humphreys, didn’t appear that different.
There is more to add to this strange event they call it election. Jim Gavin, despite being somehow an outsider backed by a mainstream party like Fianna Fáil, was forced to drop due to leaked scandals on a personal level. The other one not to forget is Maria Steen. The old-fashion Catholic lady presented herself as not only the voice of the conservative but somehow also of the libertarian types, which surely didn’t recognize themselves in much of Steen’s ideology but had no other option than endorsing her. Well, both crowds end up together (again!) in a political orphanage of these radical left tyrannical times. Now, this is not to say that Maria Steen was undemocratically stopped to run for Presidency. She was short of two official votes to purse it. We all knew the rules of the game since the start. Indeed, they favour the system and will make it nearly impossible for the alternative to challenge it.
For a reason I can’t put together, Jim Gavin was still in the ballots. For a motive that even goes beyond my comprehension, more than 100,000 (7.18%) votes on him. That’s nuts. The discontent folks (which has been quite vocal towards uncontrolled migration policies, and a few have dares to openly showed support for Israel) has been incentive to spoil the vote. There was even an unofficial campaign to get out of your coach and spoil it. And one can say that it was well received. The numbers don’t lie. 213,738 spoiled, which it equals represents 13% of the electoral. And I reckon that many didn’t bother to take their time to draw a beautiful mid-finger to the establishment and the far left. We are probably talking of an angry population that could easily be in the region of 20%. The question is: would they be able to organise it among a charismatic persona and not be dragged by ego battles? There are common issues that shall make people team up. The appreciation for Israel and willingness to close the door to ‘migrants with benefits’ it’s a great starting point. The system is surely not underestimating the regrouping of the so-called far-right in the aftermath of the spoil the vote success numbers.
We shall also not neglect the left lessons from Catherine victory. They are now conscious that as a block they can beat the other strange alliance of two parties who were enemies in the old world, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Both are in in government and made a fool of themselves, the first by supporting a candidate and kind a changing their mind in the midst of the campaign and the later by presenting a woman that to me it resembled Hilary Clinton: a careerist at her best.
Catherine has seven years ahead of her. Despite the discreet role of president, it’s not exactly a short-term to appointment for the Irish to see that the radical left is not acting in the interests of Irish people at all and whatsoever. I reckon that will be visible soonish from the anywhere in the Celtic skies. And it won’t take time to be noticeable in Brussels and in Jerusalem.
