In all the commentary on the USA’s mid-term elections, only a few voices mentioned that the results represent a recovery, by old-school Republicans, of their party from the fundamentalists of the Tea Party. Yes, there are still some disturbing individuals out there – but on the whole, the ship has righted itself and that’s probably good news, though clearly not for the less well-off in America.

The first manifestation of this was the declaration by Mitch McConnell that Republicans would seek common ground with President Obama. This marks a major sea-change because, for the last four to six years, they have been trying to create gridlock: to, in effect, make America ungovernable. And to a large degree they succeeded.
In that endeavour they were, of course, aided and abetted by America’s howling media, a largely right-wing political force in its own right (being mainly owned by moguls and oligarchs).
The word ungovernable has recently been used in the Irish context too. Here, it’s arisen from the depth of the anger fomented around water charges. It’s interesting. The media seem determined to present the anti-water charge campaign as a popular movement generated by seven years of austerity and hatred and mistrust of the organs of the State.
The campaign is more complex than that. Yes, there is certainly deep resentment of the charges and especially at the astonishing bonus arrangements that Irish Water intended introducing. These beggared belief; indeed they still do. They also generated a horrifying sense that nothing at all has been learned by the administration class in Ireland, who blithely go about feathering their own nests at the expense of ordinary citizens.
But we also heard voices declaiming that “my water is free and I’m not paying.” Well, that begs a question or two. Because water isn’t really free at all. Even if you get it from a well, someone had to dig the hole. No, your water has been paid for by the taxpayers of the country…
So, are those who say it’s free and they’re not paying stupid? Do they not understand that water has been paid for in taxes? Or are they misled by people chanting slogans? Or, as few dare ask, could some of them be people who actually don’t pay taxes and are therefore technically correct – they get it free so they don’t want that to change?
The net effect is to create a sense that, notwithstanding the apparent progress on some fronts, there’s growing gridlock at policy level, based on a fear amongst politicians and senior public service figures that you can’t really decide to change anything because the antis and what-abouters will strangle change at birth.
This stasis is celebrated, in an angry told-you-so manner, by some of the commentariat, people who thought that a new politics would emerge from the crisis, a kind of Roman Senate politics where party affiliations would fade away and there would be reasoned debates among rational representatives working towards consensus…
It’s a nice thought, but it’s inconsistent with Irish political tradition. It might have happened had we been like, say, Denmark, where there’s a very strong social consensus. But Ireland isn’t like that. No, we’re much more free-market, much more committed to competition (look at university entry, for chrissake) and to holding onto what we’ve got, at whatever level we’re operating.
Sure, the anti-water charge campaigners include many who want to express a legitimate, wider sense of frustration and anger at the whole way that politics is run in Ireland. But in their midst are others who really do want to make the country ungovernable – not to promote a fresh kind of political process but to oppose purely in order to foment conflict.
Enda Kenny and the Garda Síochána said as much – that individuals were being bussed to demonstrations in a clearly organised way and that some of these have been involved in violent confrontations with the Gardai. It may be true. Of course that is a democratic right – at least up to the point where provocation and violence enter the frame. Either way, of course, there is an onus on the Gardaí to be above reproach.
Whatever way you look at it, from a dissident point of view, these are the salad days. So many targets, so little time. And the media – hungry for stories as ever – are complicit in increasing the temperature. Little effort is invested in separating the different threads of complaint. Nor is much energy expended in differentiating the diverse strands of political action now in play.
The result? The established political parties have suffered significant damage in the polls and have been outstripped by… well, by those who aren’t established political figures. And that’s about as far as you can go. There’s a left-wing win here and an independent gain there. Add them all up and you have a combination of socialists of varying stripes, Sinn Féiners and Mé Féiners…
So far, what they’ve shown is that they have a strong sense of how they can oppose – how they can find the weak link and go for it; how they can work the media, including social media, to mobilise opinion and opposition; how they can undermine and, sometimes, overturn unpopular and unworthy policies.
What one most definitely does not get is a sense that there is any broad, shared view of Irish society or any clear practical plans for how such a view might translate into a programme of action. Most seem every bit as tunnel-visioned and locally-based as those they oppose, if not more so. And, if the trend continues, that sounds like a recipe for ever-increased gridlock and ungovernablility.
Of course, in a republic “governable” shouldn’t imply that an elite is in charge and rules the ‘masses’. Rather, it should mean that the citizens elect representatives who can oversee the running of the State effectively on their behalf and in their interests.
But nobody’s talking about this. And the media, almost as much in hock (directly and indirectly) to oligarchs as in the US, have no interest. Which may be news – but it’s not good news…