A Declaration of War

I am declaring war on the Irish electorate after all it was they that replaced one set of neo-liberals with another set who have also managed to swallow the parliamentary party of the so called socialist labour party. The result of our electorate’s decision is this mean minded austerity that is pointlessly been aimed at our poor and vulnerable today.
The problem as I see it is that the Irish electorate is uneducated in ideology and the importance of same when reaching a decision as to who to give a vote to. There are may reasons for this, the local element of our politics particularly in rural areas has no room for ideology-instead the local representative is a mere fixer, maybe getting a road built or some other petty favour.
Many of these representatives are only mindless backbenchers anyway-they add no value to democracy at any level, and they are at the mercy of the most undemocratic phenomenon in the world the whip system. This soviet style tag to our democratic system renders it undemocratic, in that individual conscience is exchanged for political expediency.
Another reason for this lack of ideology is historical as many of the socialist revolutionaries’ who fought for Irish freedom were killed either in the rising of 1916-or in the civil war leaving the citizens of this state with a two party cartel from which to make their political choices. The labour party was insignificant and for many years this state was ruled by conservative politicians in league with the catholic church.
People could argue that the young state was in dire need of leadership and it also needed stability to allow it grow and prosper. Yet when you examine the whole process of our political evolution one could ask why there was no room for any political alternative to the catholic democrats who took turns in holding office for well over half a century. Gradually of course different parties emerged many were formed as splinter groups from the war in Northern Ireland and of course the labour party grew in line with the growth in urban populations.
Other parties followed like the workers party who divided into democratic left which was then annexed by the labour party. Indeed it is hard to believe that Gilmore and Rabbitte were once regarded as ideologically dangerous or subversive-but then as I said this electorate doesn’t do ideology.
What differences would an ideologically aware electorate have to evaluate before making there choice, there is a school of thought that bestows decency to all political representatives no matter which party they hail from, this view spawns from the idea of hard working and in the public service. It would be a misnomer to assume that the correct ideology makes it believers good and the incorrect doing the reverse. So taking the personalities out of it is vital when one examines the difference in ideology and the effects that it has on our daily lives.
The main difference is in ones realisation as to what is a state and indeed what are the true functions of the state. Most people regard the state as inanimate our flag blowing in the wind or by the parameters set out on an Atlas. Some think it is our government or our bureaucracy but it is of course none of these things, the state is comprised by the people who are its citizens. So when a government ministers says they wants to promote jobs and keep income taxes low as they have faith in private enterprise to provide jobs they are in a effect excluding the citizenship from this process.
This mantra means that the public service must be cut to aid job creation in the private sector-read this as the Irish citizen cannot control or run our own enterprises in order to create jobs and wealth. We cannot be trusted for example to control our fisheries-our natural resources of oil and gas-wind energy etc. Do we Irish citizen agree with this because if we did take control of the aforementioned there would be no need for the austerity and we actually could in time create a more equal society on condition that we pay higher income taxes in exchange for world class services in health-education and infrastructure.
So now will the electorate continue to vote blindly-or will ideology become a real issue in the formation of ones vote-time will tell and when it does I will withdraw my declaration and retreat.