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Fianna Fail - a populist party without a populist leader...

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  • 24-10-2017 2:28pm
    #1
    jetsonx
    Registered Users Posts: 1,326 ✭✭✭


    It really must be killing Fianna Fail.

    Populist politics is spreading across the world like wild-fire and
    here Fianna Fail are stuck in the mud without any populist leader.

    In fact things must be so bad at the FF high-command that they are thinking of bringing back de Bert into the fold. Yes, they blooded Stephen Donnelly into the party but he's only good for appearing in TV studios in Montrose and not at GAA matches or ploughing championships. The BagMan (that up-and-coming man-of-the-people FF figure) got destroyed during that infamous Pat Kenny debate and is still licking his wounds.

    Where did it all go so wrong for FF? Have they become victims of their own cute-hoorness?


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    #2
    blanch152
    Registered Users Posts: 27,194 ✭✭✭✭blanch152


    jetsonx wrote: »
    It really must be killing Fianna Fail.

    Populist politics is spreading across the world like wild-fire and
    here Fianna Fail are stuck in the mud without any populist leader.

    In fact things must be so bad at the FF high-command that they are thinking of bringing back de Bert into the fold. Yes, they blooded Stephen Donnelly into the party but he's only good for appearing in TV studios in Montrose and not at GAA matches or ploughing championships. The BagMan (that up-and-coming man-of-the-people FF figure) got destroyed during that infamous Pat Kenny debate and is still licking his wounds.

    Where did it all go so wrong for FF? Have they become victims of their own cute-hoorness?

    To be fair, FF and FG are both riding high in the opinion polls, albeit with FG ahead and their rivals are losing rather than gaining votes. There are more questions for the likes of Labour, SF and Solidarity at the moment who all had high hopes and aren't faring that well.


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    #3
    FrancieBrady
    Registered Users Posts: 66,870 ✭✭✭✭FrancieBrady


    jetsonx wrote: »
    It really must be killing Fianna Fail.

    Populist politics is spreading across the world like wild-fire and
    here Fianna Fail are stuck in the mud without any populist leader.

    In fact things must be so bad at the FF high-command that they are thinking of bringing back de Bert into the fold. Yes, they blooded Stephen Donnelly into the party but he's only good for appearing in TV studios in Montrose and not at GAA matches or ploughing championships. The BagMan (that up-and-coming man-of-the-people FF figure) got destroyed during that infamous Pat Kenny debate and is still licking his wounds.

    Where did it all go so wrong for FF? Have they become victims of their own cute-hoorness?

    A party that it has lost it's way.
    I think you can see that in it's unprompted navel gazing about who they will or won't go into coalition with.
    A fairly good indicator of internal tensions.


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    #4
    Mr.Micro
    Registered Users Posts: 5,336 ✭✭✭Mr.Micro


    It's the same old FF. They are quite happy to be in coalition with FG albeit unofficially. The Government will always be to blame when things go wrong. What's not to like about the arrangement for FF...


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    #5
    James Brown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,015 ✭✭✭✭James Brown


    Major contradictions in how some view Irish politics.
    The smaller parties are accused of populism, yet they aren't popular.
    Fianna Fail are the masters. I've more admiration for a politician or party who stick to their guns and lose rather than winning to the point of false promises, (or lies if the intent was never there), but winning is the most important thing for them. Fianna Fail really need a new snake charmer to bring it home.


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    #6
    jetsonx
    Registered Users Posts: 1,326 ✭✭✭jetsonx


    Matt Barrett wrote: »
    Fianna Fail really need a new snake charmer to bring it home.

    Good point!

    But where will FF find their next snake charmer?

    At the moment the party is like Hamlet without the prince...


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    #7
    Seth Brundle
    Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 38,871 Mod ✭✭✭✭Seth Brundle


    jetsonx wrote: »
    At the moment the party is like Hamlet without the prince...
    ...and hopefully before too long the party ends up more like Yorick!


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    #8
    Wanderer78
    Registered Users Posts: 28,805 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    Ff and fg are doing grand, both will do well in the next ge compared to the rest, nothing to worry about there.


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    #9
    Samaris
    Registered Users Posts: 6,544 ✭✭✭Samaris


    Ireland is unusual in that our big political divide is not down to left-right politics, and at the moment, the surge of populism is very much a right-wing nationalism.

    Our big nationalist party is left-wingish, and our two main parties are pretty centrist with a ridiculous divide over the Treaty.

    The Irish people don't tend to trust nationalist surges in our politics, mostly due to Sinn Fein being the representative party.

    So there's that, but also that we've not been all that targeted for population-swaying in terms of votes which appears to be a strongly Anglospheric issue (it has cropped up in other languages, but I think the English-speaking part of the internet especially has been flooded). No-one really cared that much who became leader of Ireland for example and I don't think outsiders really get the FF/FG thing (hell, I don't get it half the time and I live here). Abortion could see a push for it, as that feeds into the larger right-wing-conservativism going around the Anglosphere. But it'd be a bit difficult to thoroughly upset Ireland by pushing for either FF or FG (and a bit pointless), and a wild push for SFism would really confuse the trolls as they're not right-wing enough by the current American/UK populist wave.


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