Politics is about staying in power
Such an authentic assessment of the Dáil shenanigans which masquerades as democratic legislature, is both apposite and appalling in equal measure. Truth hurts, and absolute truth hurts absolutely.
Will any of the protagonists in either Oireachtas chamber give a tupenny — Not likely ... not on your nellie ! When the swirl and cycle of electoral vagary swarms around, the political psyche will always beat a hasty retreat back to the tired and testy exchange-pantomime, which parades itself as noble protector of the nation’s interests.
The huff, puff and guff of the current governing parties before the last election was, as usual, electoral fantasy farrago to charm and cajole the unsuspecting citizen believers into thinking things would fundamentally change with regard to our democratising templates. How naive were we to believe such hogwash — Politicians, like leopards, will never opt for changing their real spots. Their penchant for disingenuous hyperbole is pervasive and permanent. Securing the seat and staying in power is the real-politik, and party-political always trumps the national interest. After all it’s ‘dog-eat-dog’ stuff out there on the hustings. Why keep promises, which would damage and destroy your strangleholds on petty power-patches aka constituencies.
It’s a numbers game, stupid — the bigger the numbers the more we control our own destiny. Thus trumpets the mantra-motto of every political party — bar none. How could it be otherwise. Life’s short, after all, and political life risks being very short, unless one takes rambling precautions. So, fibbery, jiggery-pokery and general ‘take-the-mickery’ is grist to the successful politician’s mill. Ethical honesty and moral empathy are for wimps. Travesties are simply collateral damage in the war-games of political chicanery.
Loyalty to your electorate is a variable commodity, depending wholly on which way the political wind blows. One can hardly expect widespread self-destruction merely for honour and righteous causes, when salaries, expenses and pensions are at stake. No martyrs are warmly welcomed in this theatre of dreams and false dawns. As you adroitly identify, when elections loom and lurk, “the Pandora’s Box of promises will be reopened, the auction will begin, and the unchanging cycle will start all over.” Fine Gael and Labour are simply playing out their prescribed roles in the grand plot of parlimentary ‘parlez-vous’.
Meanwhile the country lurches from wanton wastage to gross inefficiencies, from sovereign state to debtor-nation and all in between. But at least the politicians keep lining their purses, and they can calmly claim a semblance of satisfaction while the country suffers on. Change is for losers, it seems.
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