This time vote with your head - The promises politicians make

THE natural cycle of politics, domestic and international, has gone through a gear change in recent days. For the next while that cycle will accelerate culminating in various elections, the formation of new governments, and possibly even new, more difficult international relationships.

Today’s expected confirmation by Taoiseach Enda Kenny of an election date — Friday, February 26, apparently; the long-awaited end of the phoney war in America’s presidential race as the results of the Iowa primaries provoke the inevitable cull of candidates; and the possibility of a vote on Britain’s EU membership within six months, will have meaningful consequences for everyone in each of those countries.

Should Britain vote to quit the EU, and we must fervently hope that they do not, that decision would have a negative impact far beyond the reach of the House of Commons. Spain’s inconclusive vote on December 20, one that returned the most fragmented parliament in that country’s history, feeds into the narrative that the EU, increasingly divided over how to cope with millions of immigrants, needs a steadying hand on the tiller. The very real possibility of Catalonia bowing to the old, tarnished gods of insular nationalism and voting to secede from Spain must exacerbate those fears.

If Europe needs a steadying hand on the tiller then the grandees, and many foot soldiers too, of America’s Republican party — and the many millions of reasonable liberals in America — may need a steadying drink if Donald Trump’s progress towards securing their party’s nomination to challenge for the presidency continues to gather momentum. No matter how you view Mr Trump it is all but impossible not to think his election as president would be a huge threat to world stability and the sustainability of western democracy, a far more delicate flower than we imagine. The plausibility — Mrs Clinton’s capacity to regularly “misremember” — of the Democratic alternative is no great consolation either.

That these events come so close together offer us an opportunity to consider if our expectations of government, politics, politicians, and democracy are reasonable and achievable. Of course the answer to that question depends entirely on where you stand — whether you’re a cradle-to-the-grave social democrat gazing longingly towards Scandinavia or whether you’re one of those small-government hardliners cheering on the Bundy standoff, an armed confrontation between protesters and law enforcement officers over grazing rights on federally owned land, in southeastern Nevada.

One set expects that the state provide five-star childcare, the other revolts at the level of taxation needed to sustain such a service. In Ireland we want free water, a far better, more equitable, and accessible health service, enough schools to satisfy every community, a doctor, a post office, and a garda station in every village, but kick at the traces when we are presented with the bill via the taxman.

Over the next few weeks, as politicians of all hues ask for our votes, maybe we should pass the electioneering through a filter of realism and basic cost analysis. If we did that then maybe we’d vote with our heads instead of our hearts.