Voting Labour

By AM Tuesday, March 15, 2011

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Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least - Robert Byrne

Labour have with all due expectation struck the deal with Fine Gael. The party’s chronic ideological promiscuity denies it the anchor that would root it firmly to a left programme and the perspective of the poor. It is fatally attracted to consorting with the right and the rich. The sheer look of ecstasy on the faces of the Labour Party luminaries as they stepped out of the shadow of opposition and into the neon lights of ministerial office said more than an avalanche of political critique. Condemned by their own beaming smiles, their message was undoubtedly that the election was about the furthering of their careers and not about the economic woes plaguing the country. With them in government rather than on opposition the proletariat will quickly become the doletariat hopelessly dependent on social welfare with no chance of social change.

I knew this was a certain outcome when I opted to cast my vote for them. It was never going to go any other way. Unsurprisingly a friend took me to task for this in asking:

A vote for Labour to form a government with the blue shirts. What possessed you? When the axe falls on the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society how will you reconcile this? Better to have spoiled your vote on the basis there was nothing on offer worth voting for.

He could have added that it is a partitionist party and has served in governments that were unremittingly hostile to republicans both in prison and on the streets.

It’s fair comment but not one that blind sided me. I knew all this at the time I cast my vote, or wasted it, depending on your perspective. So why not just stop at the pub on the way to the polling station and stay there until the booths closed rather than dropping in for a drink on the way back from voting? I could always have abstained, spoiled my vote rather than wasting it.

People have the right to desist from voting even though there are some who demand that voting be made compulsory or alternatively heap abuse on those who would rather stay at home on polling day. Democracy supposed to be rooted in consent can hardly coerce citizens into voting. People cannot be denied the right to vent a view that the candidates on offer do not merit a vote. As Jay Leno comments, ‘If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.’ Given that we had plenty of candidates and no god it hardly answers the point but we know what he means.

At the same time to refrain from voting is inescapably to endorse the status quo. You may not vote for things to remain the same but not to cast a vote is an act of inertia which equates with no movement. That when boiled down amounts to nothing other than ‘as you were.’ For that reason there is surely something to be learned from the proclamation by George Jean Nathan that ‘bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.’

When my turn came, faced with the dilemma of either endorsing the status quo or voting for something that would make no difference to the status quo - Hobson’s choice - I looked down the list of candidates on offer. Having already decided that spoiling my vote or not casting it were not options that I favoured, I picked what looked closest to a general Left position. Labour was the only party that fitted the bill, when the bill could be fleetingly glimpsed from behind the haze and penumbra.

There were no United Left Alliance candidates in this constituency, nor a republican one that I could see. The parties I was determined to give no preference to were Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein. In some areas like Dublin Mid West certain Sinn Fein candidates would have got some preference but not in Louth. There was neither a moral or political reason to cast a vote for Sinn Fein there given the record of its candidate. The other parties would not get a preference regardless of where they stood or who stood for them.

In casting my vote I was fully aware that Labour would join Coalition with Fine Gael. The internal composition of the party allowed for nothing else, even if I voted for Labour to go into opposition not government. It was the mere expression of political desire rather than the endorsement of the certain outcome. That however has the ring of an excuse to it rather a reason.

The fallback position, always one where consolation rather than conviction reigns, was that when the party did go into government its more radical elements might be able to eke out some protection for the more vulnerable on issues like child benefit.

There is some small comfort but only just, in that now having voted them I can claim to have been let down by them and muster a louder shout when calling on them to do something worthwhile without arming them with the retort that I never voted.

Nevertheless when all is said and done more will be said than done by Labour. Voting for what we would like rather than what we expect is ultimately more psychologically satisfying than politically so.

Best option – be abroad or seriously hung over on polling day.