There is and can never be an excuse for political violence for the simple reason that politics exists as a mechanism for resolving political disputes peacefully.
In a few weeks, this country will go to the polls. Should the voters will it, then every single member of the government and every single member of the opposition can be sacked, removed from office, and deprived of any and all say over the country’s affairs. Should the voters will it, they can elect 174 completely new people to the Dáil, and start over.
There is, therefore, no excuse for hitting a politician and, in the memorable words of at least one newspaper article yesterday, “causing criminal damage to a clipboard”.
Now, that was the necessary disclaimer. No, this writer doesn’t secretly approve of battering Roderic O’Gorman or any other elected official. Yes, if you do it, you should expect to go to court at least and possibly prison.
But can we all maybe, possibly, get a grip?
A few weeks ago, as I wrote here, a canvasser for a Government party came to my door and happened to catch me at a bad time. The conversation devolved, and ended with the poor man being asked impolitely to leave my property.
These are, to some degree, the risks you take when canvassing – especially for a government party. You’re knocking on the doors of strangers, some of whom may have been deeply personally affected by the policies of your government. You are going to meet angry people. Some of those people will be unreasonable.
About 17 years ago, this writer was canvassing in one of the well-to-do avenues in between Ranelagh and Rathmines for then-Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton. It was on one of those streets where – at least at the time – the very air smells of wealth and privilege. As an old friend used to note, they call them the “leafy suburbs” because it implies that poor people don’t deserve that kind of fresh oxygen.
Every driveway was graveled. Every car was German. Every door had a brass handle and knocker. Most of the houses had intercoms, where the residents might deign to speak with you through the medium of electronics in a bored and inhospitable tone.
On one occasion, my co-canvasser and I – a young woman – approached a door and were greeted by a very red-faced angry man who had, apparently, written some months earlier to our candidate about a dog fouling issue and received no reply, or at least one that was insufficiently timely. Our candidate was fucking useless. We were fucking useless. We had some neck canvassing here. And another thing, the fucking state of the pair of us. Were we not embarrassed. And then, directed at my female colleague, get the fuck from my door, you ugly looking c*nt.
This is the nature of canvassing. Most people are lovely, or at the very worst sullenly silent. Some people are either just very bad people, or, perhaps more charitably, good people caught in a bad moment who lose control of their dignity.
The point is this: You went to their door. They didn’t invite you.
I do not know this for certain, but I’m as confident as one can be that in this particular incident Roderic O’Gorman was not in any danger. There is, in the coverage of the case, no mention for example of a weapon, or any threat to life. In addition, O’Gorman had (as is right and proper) the benefit of a personal close protection officer. Civic virtue has not collapsed because a voter took what sounds like a wild swing at him, and damaged a clipboard.
In my own case, mentioned above, such a swing was not taken. But the anger was no less real, and no less irrational.
It is a fact of life that the Green Party’s record in Government has made many voters angry. Frankly, they are entirely correct and within their rights to be angry about it. Minister O’Gorman is the Minister for Tusla and the Minister for refugee accommodation, two of the biggest stains on this Government’s record. He is in addition the leader of a party that has rammed up fuel taxes, blocked airport expansions, bailed out RTE, sought to control the media, and all the while behaved more smugly and talked with more patronising condescension than Greta Thunberg at the model UN. With any luck, most voters will translate that anger into electoral action, rather than attempting to become amateur boxers.
At the same time, it’s a bit much to watch our colleagues in the media reach for the smelling salts as if violence in our democracy has been unleashed. Not least because of their comparative silence two years ago when a violent gang travelled from Dublin to attack a private National Party event in Enniskillen.
On that occasion, people were actually hospitalised. Which brings me to this question: Who was it again who introduced terms like “punch a nazi” into our political culture?
The thing here is this: You might sympathise with someone who wants to punch Justin Barrett, or you might sympathise with someone who wants to punch Roderic O’Gorman. But whomever you want to punch, the best place to punch them is in the ballots.
Equally, the media might want to play up “the far right threat”, but it needs to get a grip. This bozo – who has now pled guilty – is not the first person to lose control of himself at a canvasser on his doorstep. He won’t be the last, either.
It’s part of politics. It shouldn’t be. But it is.