Loyalty to the State or to the People?

hoorsmelt

Between Dana and Marty Mc, there's been alot of talk about loyalty to the state recently, but I'm beginning to wonder if loyalty to the state is not a bad thing. The Irish state, after all, is the state that is bankrupting its citizens to keep political leaders on lavish wages and pensions, forcing young people into emigration, has denied democracy to citizens in the recent past (Lisbon and Nice fiascos, the Donegal by-election and the lack of referendum on the EU IMF deal) and of course bailing out the banks to the detriment of citizens.


Thanks to these and similar measures like Nama which the state is responsible for, I think that we should not judge politicians by their loyalty to the State but by their loyalty to the people, if they have worked in the people's interest rather than the interests' of the state then they are truly worthy of respect and a vote in elections, if they are people who work for the interests of the state and the establishment, they should be ostracised and boycotted.

What do people think, should patriotic Irish wo/men remain loyal to the state? Your thoughts please.

TanG411

I think AH is about generic humour, not politics.

orourkeda

Surely representative politics is a 2 way street so to speak.

Politicians rely on our vote to gain or keep office. Surely we owe it to ourselves to make sure they do the job which they were elected to do.

In other words, the electorate need to participate to a greater degree in our democracy rather than whinging and moaning how poor our elected representatives are.

Dravokivich

The State as you refer to it, is no more than an inanimate object, it's the actions taken on it's behalf that are problematic, not the State itself.

hoorsmelt

orourkeda wrote: »

Surely representative politics is a 2 way street so to speak.

Politicians rely on our vote to gain or keep office. Surely we owe it to ourselves to make sure they do the job which they were elected to do.

In other words, the electorate need to participate to a greater degree in our democracy rather than whinging and moaning how poor our elected representatives are.

But there is no effective mechanism to remove politicians who are actively working to the detriment of our interests- look at the last government for an example of that. Everyone wanted them gone and we had to wait until Cowen screwed up a reshuffle before we got an election.

SEPT 23 1989

The State=Corrupt Elite

Son Of A Vidic

ThinksAmoral wrote: »

I think AH is about generic humour, not politics.

Don't pigeonhole us, because AH can be about anything really.

jimthemental

There has to be a balance struck. It can't all be parish pump politics or there'll be no water flowing in the first place. That being said it's a clusterfúck at the moment and Ireland has never really had dynamic political change of policy since the civil war so the balance isn't going to be struck any time soon.