Ireland needs a 'Tea Party' movement
Posted on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 06:16 PM
Larger Text
Print
E-mail
16 Comments
RSS 
Recent Posts
- Hey Senator Levin - Ireland is NOT a tax haven
- When your daughter insists on going in the One Direction that creates the most stress
- Ireland as Britain's wind farm - weighing up the pros and cons of ugly and heavily subsized Irish windfarms
- Justin Bieber's perfectly judged comment on Anne Frank - "Hopefully she would have been a belieber"
- The Irish property tax problem - everyone wants to own some and no one wants to be taxed on it
Archives
On Wednesday night BBC's "Newsnight" did a segment on the Tea Party movement in America. I'd heard about the Tea Party-ers, but only as a vague protest movement. The other night the BBC put a human face on them, interviewing a small gathering in someone's home in Washington, MO.When it was over I thought to myself, "nothing like that would ever happen here." I don't know why, but the scene I was witnessing just seemed so American: people in a small town getting together to discuss what they could do to affect national politics. They seemed so determined to make a difference, to influence policy and - they stressed - to ensure that they weren't used and/or abused by one party of the other.
Ireland is only 1/100th the size of America, yet I think most Irish people feel a greater sense of frustration that there is nothing that can be done, that what 'they' (politicians) get up to is out of our control.
Ireland's issues and Irish voters are not the same as America's, so the Tea Party goals would not suit Ireland. Yet, the manner in which the Tea Party movement has channeled frustration with politicians among a segment of the electorate is a model that could be useful here.
The biggest source of anger in Ireland right now is the banks and the government's support for them. The Irish economy is on its knees, barely treading water. The NY Times recently mentioned Ireland as possibly having to default on its obligations, so great are the debts the government has taken on to shore up the banks.
Needless to say, many people are hopping mad that all of us taxpayers have to stump up to save the bankers, all of whom seemed to be coining it during the Celtic Tiger years.
This past week the government announced that they were going to hold an inquiry into what happened with the banks, but the inquiry is going to be held in secret. No tv cameras, no press, no nobody other than those who the government appointed inquiry head asks. The inquiry is expected to be complete by year's end.
There's a general cry out 'whitewash' across the country as everyone knows that the banking problem was a result of bankers' greed (and/or stupidity), developers' greed, regulatory bodies ineptitude and government indifference (or worse) until it was too late. Despite the frustration at the banks, politicians and developers the closest we've come to a protest movement here was when, in a widely applauded move, a man threw eggs at the chairman and chief executive of Allied Irish Banks last May.If there was a Tea Party type movement Irish people might be able to use that anger to better effect, instead of simply stewing or calling and texting talk radio programs.They might just, perhaps, get the public inquiry and maybe even a banker or two on trial.
16 Comments
See all comments
McNamara31 | Mar 25, 2010, 10:11 AM EDT
Dear Yank, I am wondering if you still hold the same opinion of the tea party since the coverage of their actions this past weekend in Washington during the healthcare bill 's passing. I hope it was covered in Ireland so you could see them screaming racial slurs and spitting on a black representative. Since then, there has been death threats and vandelism acted out on those Dem's who voted for a more humane healthcare bill.
Report abuse
Realist | Jan 31, 2010, 12:44 PM EST
The Republic of Ireland should re-take their rightful place in the British Commonwealth. It would be of much more benefit to them than this lot.
Report abuse
Sectionhand | Jan 29, 2010, 01:48 PM EST
GET angry Ireland ! The "Tea Party" movement in America has no Party lines . They're fed up with being lied to and finally realize that a grassroots mobilization of public opinion really does work !
They've put The Fear Of The Lord in the Washington Politicians and don't let the news media tell you otherwise ! You can do it too . Take Ireland back !
Report abuse
McNamara31 | Jan 25, 2010, 07:40 PM EST
Haole3000.. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that "all men are created equal", that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are "Life," Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
P.S. It's difficult to have "Life" without Healthcare.
Report abuse
Haole3000 | Jan 25, 2010, 01:50 PM EST
""to each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities"". Is that where the "right" to health care is from?? The right to take from your fellow citizens because you need the product of his labor?? Marxism. Celebrate Mayday with a few pints, you need them
Report abuse
Haole3000 | Jan 25, 2010, 01:22 PM EST
""the human right to healthcare,"" That right isn't in the constitution, nor the bible. Taxes are violence, live by the sword die by the sword. The only way to give healthcare to everybody is to raise the level of taxation, violence, in society.
Report abuse
Haole3000 | Jan 25, 2010, 01:18 PM EST
""The gap between the US & EU is much less than between the EU and the USSR or Nazi Germany.""
The EU is the third large socialist experiment to try to unit Europe. Let's hope they don't murder 100 million Euros like the last two experiments. Most likely this is such a weak socialist gov that the muslims will end up ruling europe. Hahaha.
Report abuse
McNamara31 | Jan 25, 2010, 12:16 PM EST
Dear Yank "The Irish are Euroserfs, they like communism and even nazism" is the same way the tea party movement attacks anyone who doesn't hold their simplistic approach to "taking back their country" and returning it to the same people who got us in this mess in the first place.
Report abuse
TheYank | Jan 25, 2010, 11:05 AM EST
McNamara31
I think you're equally unfair to the Tea Party movement. There may have been some signs at one of their rallies that allowed their political opponents to disparage them, but that's all it is. Politics. I don't think the average Tea Party member is anybody's serf a bigot.
Report abuse
TheYank | Jan 25, 2010, 10:53 AM EST
Haole3000,
I don't disagree with you about the EU Constitution, err, Lisbon Treaty, etc., but there's a lot of distance between an inefficient and excessive bureaucracy and a communist or Nazi state.
The gap between the US & EU is much less than between the EU and the USSR or Nazi Germany.
Report abuse
McNamara31 | Jan 24, 2010, 08:03 PM EST
Haole3000 If you want to really talk "serfs",the tea party movement who visited Washington with their bigoted signs and their yelling at town hall meetings and their "I got mine screw you additude" about the human right to healthcare, are truly the roboserfs of Fox News.
Report abuse
Haole3000 | Jan 24, 2010, 09:46 AM EST
The Tea party movement is a movement back to the US constitution.
Compare the US constitution to the EU constitution the Irish voted on till they voted the "correct" way.
Huge difference.
Report abuse
TheYank | Jan 24, 2010, 02:08 AM EST
Haole3000,
Your comments are unfair. Yes, there's greater government involvement in people's lives here, as in the rest of Europe, but that does not make the people admirers of communism or Nazism.
There is a very centralized system of government here, part of the legacy that was inherited from the British.
Report abuse
plasticpaddy | Jan 23, 2010, 08:14 PM EST
idiot
Report abuse
Report abuse