Election 2024 . Not that one, though the Trump victory is sure to influence some of what we are threatened and promised. presumably we'll have a date soon.

[DeanElderberry]

Any wise thoughts?

Having started the thread I then went into a terrible 1970s style 'don't vote, it only encourages them' slump. I didn't see any of the TV debates, and everything I heard any of them say on the radio enraged me further. I will vote. I always vote. Not sure for whom or in what order. But not FG not once they've indicated Helen McEntee will get high office, and not the Green candidate, even though I think climate and biodiversity are THE important issues for all of us. But most of the Greens (I'd except Pippa Hackett) don't seem to know how to communicate.

I am looking forward to the counts.

Isn't it brilliant 🤣 The return of the infamous "Family A" on election day!

Happy Election Day,

Usual election day post,

Please GET OUT AND VOTE.

Drag family, encourage friends, colleagues etc to get out and vote.

This is our voice, we have to speak up. This is the people who will be representing and making decisions on our behalf until 2029.

VOTE, EVERYONE VOTE.

Regardless of who you vote for just vote.

What a fantastic post at @Brownwitch and such an important read.
Happy Election Day everyone.

Would turning up at the polling station in a bainín gansey and a curly red wig get you turned away for wearing a visible slogan?

Perhaps a Donald Trump wig and an orange face!
Would be the same type of voter mentality!!

That's me told.

Aontú make sense on many subjects, and like to see a political party that isn't grounded in despising the electorate.

I'm also fascinated to see both with Aontú and with Nancy Mace that 'pro life' is morphing into 'anti abortion except after rape or incest or when the health of the mother is threatened (as we know, that has to mean mental health) and with a 20 week limit; and women must have access to contraception'. Some of the hard cases people have seen in places enforcing a total ban have clearly caused enough outrage that politicians are learning that it's complicated.

If that had actually been an option in the abortion referendum (anti abortion except after rape or incest etc ) I think a lot of people would have voted for it at the time. It wasn’t an option because it’s too hard to implement.

Ciara Kelly on Newstalk earlier said that only 1 in 12 people in the world get to vote so please get out and vote.

@DeanElderberry that cartoon is a prime example of the sensationalist and fear mongering methods used by these far right parties.

We know that many people from all political ideologies complained about this cartoon (and rightly so) and it was removed. We live in a democracy and we are lucky that we have referendums to change our constitution so people have a say on issues such as abortion, gay marriage etc outside a general election.

At a general election we need to take a wider view and vote in the best interests of ourselves and our country. We need to vote for a stable government in these quite frankly very scary times we are living in.

Do not be swayed by soundbites and populist rhetoric. The rise of populism is epitimosised by the election of Donald Trump in America. In Ireland we see these people celebrating when buildings set aside for asylum seekers are burnt down.

If you want to return to a 1950s conservative Ireland you can vote for these far right parties ( Aontu, Independent Irelands, far right independents such as Gavin Pepper and Malachy Stenson). We even have one of Irelands most notorious criminals Gerard Hutch running under this populist ideology.

If you want a progressive stable economy where we can work on our issues and difference together you can vote for any of the main parties (SF, FF,FG) or centre left (SD, LAB, Green).

Definitions of 'the far right' have become very nebulous. The people who drew, approved, ordered and distributed that cartoon would probably protest if they heard themselves described that way, but their policy of 'othering' whole groups of people, depicting them as not-quite-human, suppressing free speech and endorsing censorship is disturbing.

I'm a lifelong trades union activist, regard myself as a leftist, have voted every time bar one (when I was out of the country) for more than 45 years, have voted on the socially liberal side in every referendum, and despite horrific results in some of those the far right has not yet had an unopposed run. But this last government has come close.

@DeanElderberry

have voted on the socially liberal side in every referendum, and despite horrific results in some of those the far right has not yet had an unopposed run. But this last government has come close

I don't understand what you are saying here. The far right has just a small foothold in Ireland.

Have you really looked at or listened to Fine Gael recently? Censorship, suppression, top-down legislation, debasing whole groups of society, attempting to keep parents out of the education of their children. The toolbox of totalitarians everywhere.

I voted for them for years - like the frog not noticing that the water was getting hotter. No more.

@Brownwitch personally I find your post the definition of sensationalist and fearmongering. We will be back to the 1950’s if Aontu get a few seats. Will we? Really? Say Aontu take their predicted 10 seats out of the total of 174. When and how exactly and through which political mechanisms will we return to the 1950’s?

@Soupfactory Of course not, we cannot time travel!! It is the ideology you are voting for if you vote for far right parties.

No we won't go back to the 1950s if you vote for a modern socially and politically totalitarian party. 2020s totalitarianism is likely to be be much much worse. And the eccentric fringe that gets referred to as 'far right' (mostly old fashioned centrists) are not the ones to be afraid of.

The weather isn't great for an election. When the weather is shite people don't turn out. Although at my polling station they said it had been a good stream this morning so hopefully the tide is turning on that.

Had bog all canvassers come to my door. Had one lot for the ff candidate (but not the candidate himself). Pretty sure another lot came about 9pm the other evening but I didn't hear the door - just the dogs going mental - and wasn't just randomly opening the door in the pitch black. Had a couple of leaflets dropped in the postbox - fg, sd, labour. Other than that it was just the 'to the household' postal leaflets. So feck knows where all our wannabe politicians were. Especially when you consider who some of them are.

I have done my democratic duty and voted and now shall await the outcome.

I wholly disagree that Aontu are a 'far right' party. I find it exhausting to have to listen to people throwing around the 'far right' label just because something is different to what they think/feel. I know objectively that I am absolutely not in any way 'far right' but a lot of my opinions would be labelled as such in an attempt to discredit and silence me. I'm really sick of it.

The weather will put people off but a lot of pensioners will be out and about because it's Friday.

Old fashioned centrists are getting labelled 'far right' by naive totalitarian leftists going further and further out in their determination to suppress freedom of expression, so the 'new centre' is waaay over there.

I don't personally consider aontu far right. Wouldn't call them centre right either mind. Middle of the 2 perhaps. Some of those smaller 'irish' parties who are teaming up would definitely be more what I'd consider the far right.

I do agree that far right and far left have come to mean something other than what it truly means in the eyes of a lot of folk (particularly younger folk) these days

Oh so you were just posting sensationalist and fearmongering information. Good to know!

My thoughts exactly. Isn’t this be kind of nonsense that contributed to Trump being elected in the US? Rather than actually listening to people you have the likes of @Brownwitch equating the kind of people who burn down asylum Centers to those who support single sex spaces and disregarding the views of anyone who doesn’t agree with them as ‘far right’. Next step according to the American model is to start calling women with legitimate concerns ‘nazis’ and ‘transphobic bigots’ 😐

As I said earlier it's a spectrum so depending where you are on the spectrum you will view it differently. I agree that Aontu are not as far right socially as some independents like Gavin Pepper. But when we look at the spectrum of voters in Ireland Aontu would be to the far right on the spectrum.
Even within the smallish group of Aontu voters there would be spectrum, some more centrist, some very far to the right.

🎯
To call Aontu or their voters far right renders the term meaningless. I know people who campaigned for Repeal and Marriage Equality who are voting for Aontu today. Most would consider themselves to be very liberal and tolerant people.