While out canvassing in the general election, a number of things have surprised me.
First, while the response to Fianna Fáil is nowhere near as good as it used to be, or where we would like it to be, it is not as bad as I expected it to be. Fianna Fáil canvassers need to bear in mind that, even in the boom times, 60% of people never voted for us. If two out of ten houses say they are voting FF this time, that’s a decent result. If three out of ten say it, then FF are heading for a very good result, all things considered.
Second, the lack of local issues coming up on the doorsteps is amazing and unprecedented (it is also to be welcomed). Last Sunday, for example, I must have knocked on over 100 doors. I got one ‘rep’ (representation, constituency work for the candidate to follow up on). Even that one rep was about a serious personal issue and wasn’t the standard ‘pothole needs filling’ or ‘grass needs cutting’ issue that would have come up before.
Third, there are a lot of people out there who are seriously disaffected with politics and politicians and don’t know who to vote for. Having spoken to a lot of them on the doorsteps, my anecdotal view is that many of these people are former Fianna Fáil voters who are searching around for an alternative this time.
A number of things strike me about this category of voters:
- If Micheál Martin can finish this campaign as strongly as he has started it, there is a chance that a proportion of these people will hold their noses and vote FF again.
- The gap in the market for a new political party that was identified before the election definitely exists and may still be open to be filled after the election.
- The opposition have totally failed to seal the deal with these voters, after all if they are still undecided at this point what is it going to take to convince them?
While the failure of the opposition to convince the electorate may help FF save some seats, in the long term this ‘plague on all your houses’ view on politics has the potential to be very corrosive to democracy.
Perhaps the greatest failing of all political parties in Ireland right now is the inability of any of them to provide any hope, confidence of inspiration to the electorate. This has consequences not only for the democratic process but for economic recovery also – as consumer sentiment remains weak, the lack of confidence provided by the political system is causing consumers to save rather than spend.
Economic recovery must not only happen, but must be seen to be happening. Politicians who inspire and appeal to our highest ideals, not our worst fears, are crucial to that recovery. There are precious few of them around.
