The Sad Reality

craigybagel wrote: »

I hate Fianna Fáil. I hate their smugness and their arrogance, I hate the way their policies destroyed the economy of the country, I hate the fact that their legacy after 13 years in power is a 3rd world health system, a crumbling education system, and public service that is a beurocratatic nightmare sucking up what little money we do have to appease the unions and FF supporters. And most of all, I hate the way unemployment levels have shot up as a result of all of the above, and the fact that as a 24 year old with a degree, I couldn't find work in Ireland and I now live in Birmingham. And that there are tens of thousands of people like me all in the same boat.

I would love to see Fianna Fáil shot down at the next election, and made to properly pay for the damage they've caused, and really feel the anger of the electorate.

But its not going to happen.

I've been lurking on the Political and General Election Boards for the last month, and I've read posts from so many people who feel the same way as me. And seen, both here and in polls, gleeful predictions that Fianna Fáil will be down to 30, maybe even into the 20's, after the election. That the likes of Mary Hanafin, Mary Coughlan, perhaps even Micheál Martin himself will lose their seats.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see that happen, but I think I need to inject some pessimism into this forum. Nobody organises an election, and galvanises the electorate, like FF does. Noone has the loyalty, especially amongst the elderly, that FF does. They've replaced Biffo with someone who is seen as being a young, hard working and popular man. He is up against what many people see as a ginger idiot, a communist, a terrorist and a vegatarian nutcase.

Come February 26th, and the results coming out, I expect to hear the phrase "the huge swing to Labour/SF/FG shown in the polls doesnt seem to be happening" quite a lot. Whilst we will still probably have a FG/Lab government, FF won't die. They are like cockroaches. 45 seats minumum.

So am I being unneccesarily pessimistic, or are the good people of boards.ie deluding themselves?

I couldn't agree more. I've made posts intimating your sentiments myself, perhaps not as well put, but certainly I absolutely agree with you.

It's a terrible shame. What I want to know is, what rational, level headed, objective person could justify, in any way, shape or form a vote for FF.

I mean, these guys have a list and history of corruption and of absolute sabotage to the country when it comes to getting into power and doing whatever it takes and then abusing it to the maximum of their ability, always at the expense of the people who'll vote for them and defend them until they're in the grave, and I can't imagine who they could possibly be fu*king over more, than their most loyal supporters...

The swagger of Bertie, I hate that man, he walked away with countless questions about 30,000 euro here and 15,000 sterling there, and he twisted in the wind, denying he had bank accounts, and giving the most obscure reasons for where massive amounts of money was coming from, like he has these amazing friends who give him, literally, hundreds of thousands, as a gift, sure you're going through a divorce ya poor fella, and he's on a minister salary at the time, and is hiding one set of finances from the tax man, and another set on the wife he's cheating on...I mean, this is the calibre of guy that is celebrated as arguably, the greatest modern day FF leader, and the most successful, in terms of electorate success, in their history, and is only parallelled in the FF hall of fame and worship by Charles Haughy, the feckin Guru of blatant abuse of public office and absolute corruption. The guy stank to the high heavens of corruption and he could perhaps be forgiven for assuming his delusional personality of thinking he was a monarch to the Irish people and therefore above the law, because he was treated like that by these staunch FF supporters.

The Irish electorate are like a council estate mother who get's beaten by their heavily drinking boyfriend who keeps getting her pregnant, banging out babies and slapping her around the council flat. He's ruined her life, but she stays with him, because he's not bad underneath it, and he'll change, and it's not that bad really when you think about...

We're a nation of self loathing, opinionated stubborn morons, blinded by a loose grasp we have on junior cert level Irish history and some of us have watched Michael Collins a couple of times and we feel like dev had the right idea and we'll never surrender to the tans, and anti-treaty...from over 100 years ago now! And support for that is lining the pockets of developers and crooks in suits today, completely exploiting the stupidity of these FF supporters, who are even too stupid to realise they're the ones being made the biggest idiot out of, but defending it and supporting it, and in terms of self destruction and stupidity, is comparable to a Jew voting for Adolf Hitler, with the foresight of knowing what's going to happen, as history has proved, and then voting for him again in the future, because there is an inherent ability to learn from the mistakes of the past or to hold any shred of accountability for the actions of the past.

Fianna Fail are an absolute unadulterated cancer in Irish society, and largely have been for many periods over the last century. In modern days they've been widely documented for their corruption and incompetence, and I'd invite you to look back through the realms of Irish history and find a time when they ever really did deliver a prosperous, thriving, Irish society...

I think you'll find, that key policies, both in terms of corporation taxation and in terms of luring foreign investment into Ireland by the national bodies set up to do so, and of which were the absolute corner stone of boom time Ireland, were not in fact FF policies, they were just policies that were introduced by the coalition Government who were cleaning up the sh*t left behind by FF after their last long stint in Government, when they ran the country into the ground, and of course, they were the ones to reap the rewards of the policies put in place, and by god did they take advantage of it, at the absolute detriment of the country also...

I could go on and on...but, IF you are a FF supporter, and it's been in your family for years, and your great grandfather died in the civil war, I'd say fair play to you for your families passion and involvement in Irish history, but the political parties of today are verrry different to the ones of that day, and I can assure you that the men on BOTH sides of the liffey who fought and died for their beliefs, did not fight for a nation that willingly gave law making ability and banking structure decisions amongst countless other rights of a free republic to a universal European Government, and it has served us very well, and the republican party of FF (again, not the ones who tabled the motion for Irish involvement in the E.U. - and again, one of the greatest political decisions made in our history with regards to delivering prosperity) did not object to this one bit, and reaped allllll the rewards, yet again...

So times have changed....now there are a bunch of sleaze bags in suits living off your loyalty to something that doesn't exist any more, so think about all they've done, and try and clear your mind and make a clear and balanced decision, and I'm sure you may open your eyes a little bit...

The only way to dislodge FF from their cosy corner is if postal votes are allowed. That's one thing I hope will happen.

I do agree with the OP in general but I do wonder about after the election. Property taxes are coming in some shape or form. It would be very hard for any FFer to say that they'd repeal property taxes but just saying it is enough for a craven voter.

The thing that I find most baffling about FF supporters is that when they give out about the bankers, they fail to see that the bankers were allowed and even encouraged by the FF government; bail outs and loose financial regulation!

I hope there's something darwinian happening here. FF voters are lazy thinkers and lazy thinkers are soon overtaken by poverty.