American founders' slogan abused in Irish voting rights debate
By: The Yank | Published Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 10:15 AM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 10:03 PM
We're having an election. It was supposed to be on March 11, but the Irish government couldn't even hold on that long and now election day looks like it will be February 25. Unfortunately for all those thousands of (mostly young) Irish who have been forced to leave Ireland and seek work elsewhere, the election will not include them.
They are ineligible to vote.
I was listening to a news program last week, one that features a weekly slot with American (right wing) talk show host
Michael Graham. When Graham innocently asked how Ireland's emigrants would vote in the upcoming election, he was shocked to learn that they have no vote. Graham noted that America allows its citizens abroad to vote by mail and that in his town - near Boston - they recently had a large news item about all the Brazilians voting there in Brazil's election. How could Ireland not offer the same to its citizens?
It's true, however. Ireland is
just about the only democracy that doesn't allow its citizens abroad to vote. For Pete's sake it is only two weeks ago that stories about Sudanese emigrants voting in their recent referendum were featured in
local papers across America and throughout the world. Sudan! If Sudan can afford - monetarily and politically - to allow its citizens outside the country to vote why can't Ireland? {Photo - Rwandan woman voting at her country's embassy in Sweden.}
There's a lot of focus in Ireland right now on how the foreign media is portraying the country in the current political crisis. Sure the Irish government is making a mess and the media is paying a lot of attention, but we all know that this will blow over. All countries go through some political upheaval at times, but the rule of law and democracy are not threatened. It's a soon-to-be-forgotten media firestorm.
Far more embarrassing, but less widely known is that Ireland disenfranchises those who choose or are compelled to move away.
Many of those who oppose emigrant voting rights are extremely smug. They dismiss the rights of Irish citizens who live outside Ireland. They say that when you leave you have no right to have a say in how the country is run.
Their most repeated argument is that if you don't pay taxes you shouldn't get to vote, equating citizen with taxpayer. What really annoys me is that they misquote and abuse a slogan of the American revolution in making their case. "No representation without taxation" they claim, sometimes even invoking America's founders as they do so.
As all Americans know full well, the slogan is "No taxation without representation," which is a perfectly reasonable argument by any democrat. The other is a perfectly reasonable argument by someone who is arrogant, uncaring and undemocratic with a secure job and no worries about having to leave the country and who doesn't give a fiddler's curse about those who do.
{You can sign an online petition
here to protest against this denial of citizens' democratic rights.}
7 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Towngate | Feb 02, 2011, 09:01 PM EST
Excellent article,Thanks Yank. My view exactly. I would add a few more radical touches:............. #1... As part of their education students should study and Qualify in basic Citizenship,social and financial subjects and being certified could vote from inside or outside Ireland. ..............#2... All Candidates before seeking election should pass an Advanced Citizenship Examination and on Passing, will be issued with a Licence to Represent the People. ..............#3... Each Constituancy to consist of a single TD and gave a similar number of Voters.( /- 10%) ............. #4...No co-alitions being permitted, in the event of no Party having a Majority; ,Voting will be repeated until one Party gains a 20% clear advantage. ................#5. ...A Minister will be discharged from Parliament if his Departments fails to achieve Stated and Agreed Targets. ................#6...Any Party whose Government collapses before the Mandtory Full Fixed Term will be Disqualified for standing in the following election, and will Forfeit their Pensions and be allowed only the equivalent of the State Old Age Pension irrespective of their age...............#7...The Irish Citizens Volunteer Army (compulsory two-year service,four if recruits have a criminal conviction) to undertake live-firing Ordnance Practice on the "Aras in the Park" and build a lovely shiny new palace on Tara Hill for His Holeyness : The Taoiseach Towngate!
GeorgeDillon | Feb 01, 2011, 03:17 PM EST
simplesandy: There's as much chance of the spineless feckless Irish "rising up" as of me marrying that woman who won the lottery.
GeorgeDillon | Feb 01, 2011, 03:16 PM EST
Yank, apart from the Sudanese, I know for a fact that Colombia and Ecuador organize voting for their citizens in the US and elsewhere. I have raised this question in conversation when in Ireland, and was told that if a person doesn't pay taxes s/he doesn't deserve a vote. This just shows that the Irish have no notion of themselves as forming a nation--they just see themselves as units in the work force. That links to the fact that they have accepted being replaced by foreign work force units, while the young Irish work force units are redeployed to other countries. I despise 90% of the Irish people of today. You only have to read their inane contributions on this site to see what spineless trash most of them are.
simplesandy | Feb 01, 2011, 01:53 PM EST
sad thing is the only thing Ireland is exporting is the youth...I pray the people don't rise up for what is going on in their gov.
RobinOCork | Feb 01, 2011, 11:50 AM EST
Yet there is a form of "taxation" on those who move away. Do they not reliably send money back to family in Ireland? Doesn't that money, spent in Ireland, help Ireland and lessen the government's burden in feeding and clothing the needy on the dole? Often that "tax" can be half of an expat's income. It should be recognized, appreciated and rewarded!
pilib04 | Feb 01, 2011, 09:21 AM EST
This isn't the first time that the Diaspora has been denied its voting rights. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have colluded over the years in denying Irish immigrants their right to vote. They force the youth of Ireland out with their disasterous economic policies that only favor the wealthy, and then deny those same Irish they forced into exile, the right to vote.
CitizenWhy | Feb 01, 2011, 04:36 AM EST
Maybe when someone is forced to emigrate for work the Irish government should refund him/her all the taxes that person has previously paid. ... And how would all the cronies in Ireland take care of each other is people were voting from abroad?