Both in the months preceding them and since the US election campaigns got underway, young social media users have seen an onslaught of videos, articles, tweets and statuses concerning the various candidates and their chances of terrifying or changing the world.
But the Irish general election has just been and gone – did this command a similar presence on social media? Certainly not. The reality is that an Irish student’s homepage is more likely to feature politicians from abroad, particularly the United States. But as fascinating as the American elections are, they won’t have an effect on our lives in quite the same way as our own general election here. So why exactly is it that we’re more concerned with what goes on across the Atlantic than in neighbouring Kildare Street?
At least on the surface, the American political game is sexier, simpler and far more social media savvy.
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At least on the surface, the American political game is sexier, simpler and far more social media savvy. The US general election is just about the biggest political stage in the world. The victor, if they can avoid being crushed by Congress, the military and bureaucracy, will wield unmatched power and influence in international affairs. That kind of power demands attention. On top of that, American politics has been the subject of films, TV series, assassinations, affairs and more than a few wars. There has been scandal, and scandal is sexy. People love to get involved in the US elections because they have been primed by decades of gripping TV and film, depicting life in the American political sphere in fascinating detail.
Nothing feeds off scandal and simplicity better than social media. If the headline isn’t juicy or snappy it will be lost in a flood of content. In order to be noticed in a country of over 320 million people, candidates need to make bold statements on the biggest issues. If you don’t have the credibility that being a former Secretary of State or First Lady brings you, then you need the outrageous statements of Trump to get you in the headlines. What Trump says in Michigan promises to be more scandalous and certainly less predictable than what Kenny says in Mullingar. And inevitably, the comments of Trump will result in far greater online buzz.
While the nomination and election processes of the US elections are in fact incredibly complex, the mass media coverage makes it all appear relatively simple. Receiving only the biggest news stories of victory, or the most outrageous statements, the US race reaches us as a pared-back struggle between only a small number of candidates and, considering the overwhelming Irish support for the Democrats, as a battle between good and bad.
Irish political clashes are less like a race and more like a slow trudge, where nobody is particularly happy with any specific candidate and where the parties are often so similar as to be indistinguishable.
In comparison, Irish political clashes are less like a race and more like a slow trudge, where nobody is particularly happy with any specific candidate and where the parties are often so similar as to be indistinguishable. To compare Ireland’s two largest parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and their remarkably similar ideologies, with the disparate politics of Democrat and Republican, is to clearly see why young Irish people might be more drawn to the American political theatre. At least across the water there is some kind of a division between their political elites.
And so the challenge remains: how to get the Irish youth as interested in Irish political occurrences as they are with events in the US? It may be that Irish young people will never be as interested in politics at home as abroad. Anybody attempting to engage young people may be fighting a losing battle against the infinitely bigger, better and bolder election events in the US. Enda Kenny will never inspire the same fascination as Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, and there’s little we can do about that. But if even a portion of that political engagement could be harnessed and put to use at home, that alone would be a significant and momentous victory for politics in Ireland.
