As history has taught us about extinction, the Dodo bird met its end because it had absolutely no sense of self-preservation. Blissfully unaware of the threats it faced, the bird was easily snatched up by hunters without even trying to defend itself, walking carelessly into traps as if it had no concept of danger.
And we are witnessing history repeat itself within our own political system, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael about to go the same way.
This coming Thursday, the Dáil will debate a bill seeking to lower the voting age in Ireland to 16. And unsurprisingly, that bill was brought forward by a fairly Leftwing politician – Independent Donegal TD Thomas Pringle.
https://twitter.com/Mullins77David/status/1537781467731869697
Now, it doesn’t take a political genius to see why a very leftwing politician would want to see a new batch of thousands of younger voters enter the electorate. As is common knowledge, teenagers and very young people tend to have much more radical left politics than older demographics, and would no doubt vote in extremely high numbers for very radical leftwing parties.
Why wouldn’t they support extreme social upheaval, after all? Young people generally don’t have children, property, or any other serious stake in the consequences if revolutionary change flips the whole civilization on its head. In the case of 16-year-olds, they don’t even have to worry about being drafted for wars. And as such, they naturally feel more at liberty to gamble with wild, dramatic social changes.
That’s why, anecdotally, even a conservative like me was a Marxist in my early to mid teens before I eventually became a smidge wiser and more mature, turned 16 and got a job, at which point I bid Mr. Marx adieu.
As such, as one might expect, all of the most radical leftwing parties like Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and the like are one hundred percent behind the move to extend the franchise to ever younger and more impressionable teenage voters. They know they can promise teens everything, from free houses which will never materialise, to a four day work week, to universal basic income – and caught up in a wave of naive idealism and desire for free stuff, politically-charged Junior Cert students will rush to the polls to change the trajectory of our country forever. The radical Left assume that such a move would increase their vote share and electoral power, and in that they are absolutely correct.
However, while it’s easy to understand why self-described Socialists and Communists would want to tap into a rich seem of teenage voters, what is far harder to explain is parties like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael supporting the same ideas.
As we established previously, every major party in the state, including the big two, support lowering the voting age to 16 – probably in a misguided effort to appeal to young people and say “Look at us! We’re your friends!” Which is a bit like a lemming trying to make friends with the bottom of a cliff. Probably not going to end well, lads.
While far from traditional or conservative, the older parties are comparatively far more moderate on almost every issue than the opposition. They believe in all the same things, for the most part – climate action, LGBTQI+ social issues, abortion, the welfare state, mass immigration and Black Lives Matter. But they believe it with slightly less gusto than their more hopped up, energetic socialist Left friends. They don’t shout quite as much, or act quite as morally self-righteous.
In other words, they’re basically a crummy, pale, €2 shop version of the opposition. “Vote for Fianna Fáil, and get exactly what Sinn Féin want, only watered down and a few years later.” Not the most compelling slogan, you’d have to admit.
Not only that, but with both parties being in government for so long in one form or another over the years, they have taken on a kind of crusty, dusty old smell. Whether they’d like to admit it or not, when you think Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, you generally think of cringy boomers and ex-teachers. It’s your Dad’s party – it’s boring. Putting on a government speech on Oireachtas TV would be a good way to clear a room if the fire alarm was broken. I’m not surprised Eamon Ryan passed out in the chamber – I’m surprised that the rest of them stayed awake.
I already wrote an article previously about how dreadful and out-of-touch government ads are compared to Sinn Féin’s slick marketing, which can be viewed below.
The point is, the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael brands are about as popular with young people as malaria. They’re seen as the parties of the housing crisis; of stagnation, and corruption, and old rich men in suits and the capitalist “patriarchy.” You can argue whether that’s true all you want, but the perception is undeniable, and the figures bear it out.
According to RedC, in the 18-34 demographic, Sinn Féin have more support than Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael combined:
https://www.redcresearch.ie/general-election-2020-younger-voters-flock-to-sinn-fein/
Comparatively, in the 55+ demographic, Fine Gael blows Sinn Féin out of the water (Fianna Fáil does slightly better too):
What this should tell every government TD is, thousands of new teenagers suddenly voting in elections is probably not going to be good for them. In fact, it’ll probably spell the end of their already-teetering control.
It’s simply astonishing how, with all their teams of handsomely paid special advisors, nobody in these circles has copped onto the fact that 16-year-olds voting is basically handing the country to Sinn Féin on a silver platter. If that happens, that’s all she wrote.
Obviously there’ll be other impacts too, like letting literal children vote and how irresponsible that is, which I covered in a previous piece. But you’d think that even if a TD didn’t care about the long-term fate of the country, from a purely mercenary, self-interested perspective, they would want to save their own skin.
SF, FF & FG all in agreement: children should be given the right to vote
If this is passed, in years to come, future generations will look back in awe at the death of the Dodo parties that willingly dug their own political graves.