Carrie Twomey ✍ For some reason, perhaps a combination of reasons including the malign influence of the Trumpian "hard man" era, Sinn Fein decided a few years ago that to demonstrate they were serious players, being angry and shouty was the way to go.
This decision happened around the time of Mary Lou McDonald's first serious electoral kick-in-the-teeth and was devised as a response to criticisms that their form of opposition was not perceived as strong enough and that was why they lost. So it was decided to turn the volume up and their front bench has followed the leader in shouting at the government ever since, at every turn.
It's been a few years and a few elections since this strategy was deployed. Now it has become their brand and is openly observed in the media. Feedback from voters criticising the approach is consistent - being angry and shouty has worn thin.
First of all, being in opposition does not mean one should always be angry, disappointed, or shouty. Secondly, being on the left also does not mean being the loudest or most aggressive is how to express your views. For some reason, perhaps because of the "hard man" tradition Sinn Fein comes from, it was decided both those things were true - despite the reason for party leader Mary Lou McDonald's previous popularity was her being seen as a nice, relatable middle class mother who bought her prawns at Supervalu. Following the loud and angry opposition model has had her increasingly play against type to the point her softer nature is no longer visible.
Pearse Doherty fares no better. He is like the coach you never know when you're going to get a clattering from, only that you're always going to get one from him.
The awfulness of this strategy, that opposition equates anger, and shouting is how to show you are serious, is evident in Sinn Féin's inability to garner enough votes to enter government. Other aspects of that failure, the disingenuous nature of their politics, the being-all-things-to-all dubiousness of their shifting positions, have been covered elsewhere.
The main reason that this strategy fails is that it is abuse.
The first few times someone yells at the government, it feels good. It feels like, "Yeah, finally! Finally someone is telling it like it is!" and all sorts of guff about speaking truth to power gets trotted out. But when every time the government does anything, the millionth time it is "shameful" and all the other negative shouty words deployed, it crosses the line from standing up against a true injustice into abuse for the sake of abuse. It becomes narcissistic, performative, and more about how the shouter is perceived than the issue at hand: "Look at me being tough on the government".
The problem is, in a democracy, which Ireland still very much is, the 'government' is made up of your neighbours and community. The government represents the country, all of its people, and must act in the best interests of the nation, no matter which political parties are at its helm.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and even Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can get some things right once in a while, because even they are made up of people who want to make their country function better, just like the people who make up Sinn Fein and all the other parties.
Pantomime politics may play to the galley, but the real work of democracy is in negotiations and working together. Which all parties do, behind the scenes, every day.
In choosing to highlight only the pantomime, democracy gets undermined. The pantomime is the gateway for the far right, who have no nuance whatsoever.
Worse, what is happening is that this shouty type of politics is felt as an abuse of the nation. It is instinctual in a nation that has suffered collectively from decades of historical abuse that are still within living memory. Being yelled at is not new. Never doing anything right, always being a failure, always being shamed - this is a refrain too many Irish people know far too well.
A true oppositional party who cares about the nation would tend to it like a loved child. Praising it when it did good, supporting its best efforts, directing and guiding it into better choices, and deploying anger rarely, only when necessary. Aggression and bullying would not be tactics it deployed.
Aggression, bullying, and abuse are tactics that create damage, and do not shape a healthy nation. It creates a mean nation, a fearful nation, ungenerous to self or others. A nation that does not believe in itself because it has always been shamed, criticised, and repeatedly told it can never do anything right.
Voters hear this abuse, too, and internalise it. It colours not just how they see "the government" but also themselves. Because, after all, the government ultimately represents them.
This is not an argument against criticising government policy, or in defence of Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil. Sinn Fein would be as abusive if the government were headed by Labour and the Social Democrats. Mary Lou and Pearse would bully and hector Ivana and Holly just as they have always done all other Taoiseachs and Tanaistes. It is now their nature and culture.
Being angry, critical, and shouty doesn't translates to votes, however, despite how popular it appears in polls. People like to be able to shout at politicians inbetween elections, to keep the government of the day on its toes. But they vote for those who will take care of the nation, not abuse it. Sinn Féin's approach has no generosity or sense of care, only anger and leaders who can never be pleased.
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| ⏩Carrie Twomey hates Illinois Nazis (just like the Blues Brothers) |
