Over at Desperate House on Ridiculous Road, County Nonsense a one Sarah Carey at the Irish Independent implored us all not to spoil our vote. In a piece headlined “If there’s a high rate of spoilt votes in this election, don’t blame the Russians”, she writes: “A true conservative will not spoil their vote, so I hope Maria Steen rises above any rancour she feels – and the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have a job to do as well.”
Ms Carey pitches hard for ‘democracy’ and conservatism and against the idea anyone should spoil their vote.
Nice try. I like to think I am a true conservative and I can tell you now there is nothing conservative about voting for either Catherine Connolly or Heather Humphreys. Obviously no conservative should vote for Catherine Connolly as she is the left – wing candidate and doesn’t want your vote.
Now call me crazy, call me far – right or just call me Laura but the last time I checked politicians were supposed to earn your vote. They actually have to stand for something you agree with and communicate it in such a way that you are motivated enough to move (in my case) my rather large bottom off the couch to go and vote on voting day.
Catherine Connolly does not want my vote. I know this as when I was at my daughter’s dance class in Drogheda at the weekend Team Catherine Connolly were there. I’m not kidding. Ms Connolly wasn’t there but Mary Lou MacDonald was. My daughter’s class actually had to dance for Mary Lou, which I have mixed feelings on. Outside at pick up was Mary, some lad in a suit (he stood out as he was wearing a suit) and a few others with leaflets. None of them approached me. None of them asked me who I was voting for and not one of them offered me a flyer. I’d like to think they took one look at me and could feel my hostility just oozing off me but either way I wasn’t for them. Therefore as I’m not a fool I won’t be voting for Team Connolly as they don’t want my vote.
Then there is Heather Humphreys. Heather likes to think she is the ‘moderate’ candidate. It is true that Heather does a good smart casual look, has a killer blow dry and doesn’t have to think twice as to whether to hire a rapist or kitten killers but that doesn’t make her a moderate.
Team Heather has not done anything to earn my vote either. She campaigned for a yes vote in the last family referendum. She wanted to delete both mother and the home from the Irish constitution. Now if Heather Humphreys or Sarah Carey can explain to me why I would for a woman who wanted to delete the word mother from the Irish constitution I’m all ears. But I think it will be a struggle.
Heather Humphreys also hopped on the anti – Israel hysteria train that has gripped Ireland in the last two years. She had no problem labelling the war to get the hostages back and eliminate the threat of genocide by Hamas to Israel, as genocide. That puts her on the same team as Catherine Connolly. She displayed no moderation when it came to that issue so it’s a no thanks from me.
Ms Carey seems to think that people shouldn’t spoil their vote and in particular she wanted Maria Steen to encourage others not to spoil their vote. Ms Carey fears “a low turnout will discredit this election.” That’s the hope all right.
Look, if people want to spoil their vote that is a perfectly legitimate thing to do. It sends a message to FF and FG that they cannot turn their backs on conservatives for 7 long years and expect us all to pitch up on election day and just vote for whatever candidate they have chosen for us – be it Heather, Dim Jim, Barney the Dinosaur or Humpty Dumpty. That’s not how elections work.
If you want to vote for people who despise you and your values; you do you but you can count me out.
In fairness to Ms Carey she does acknowledge that Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris have work to do. That dear reader is a bit of understatement.
What kind of conservative would vote for either party that blocked a conservative from getting on the ballot? What kind of fool do you take me for? At least Simon Harris at FG was honest about it: the councillors and TDs of FG were whipped that they could not support any independent candidate.
Once Taoiseach Micheál Martin finished putting together his dream team of Jim Gavin and whatever fool thought Jim Gavin was a good idea he also enforced a whip and made sure no FF candidate broke and supported any independent candidate. You might say this is politics. I say it is an abuse of process and an abuse of the whip process.
The whip is there to force through government policies, especially those that have been promised in election manifestos. It operates to increase democratic legitimacy: the voters voted for a party as they wanted policy X, now that party is in government and should deliver on policy X, that cannot be upended by one of two wavering TDs for whatever self-interested reason they have.
The whip was not supposed to turn a filtering process for the Irish presidential election into a blocking power. That’s not what it was designed to do and there is nothing ‘conservative’ in what either Simon Harris and Micheál Martin did.
I’m not telling anyone to vote in any particular way. Sarah Carey says that she “will do the right thing. I will vote and I won’t spoil my vote.” You do that Sarah and see where it gets you. More crappy policies pushed by the NGOs along with more crappy politicians is my guess.
The argument that conservatives owe Heather Humphreys their vote or shouldn’t spoil their vote is ludicrous. They wrecked this election – it is not up to me or Maria Steen or any other conservative to put it back together again.
Do you believe that the Carbon Tax makes a meaningful difference to making Ireland a greener and more climate-friendly place?
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