We get the politicians we deserve: Nearly 60 candidates in EU vote

If a decision to stand as a candidate in an election is an expression of optimism or frustration, of ambition or dissatisfaction, or as it seems at its simplest, a declaration of enduring faith in the political process, then the 59 Irish candidates who declared for the European elections before yesterday’s noon deadline suggest that a healthy belief in politics capacity to change or protect our world endures. That many hundreds more will offer themselves as local representatives on the same polling day — May 24 — suggests that despite everything, despite social media tsunamis of half-informed but molten anger and unacceptable abuse the idea of participatory democracy seems in a reasonably healthy state. The outcomes of that process are, however, a different matter.

The turnout at our last European elections — 52.4% — was hardly an overwhelming endorsement but it was far, far better than the dangerously low 43.87% turnout in the recent presidential election. Maybe we, like someone need exceptional motivation to play our part. Such a smell-the-coffee moment came in last year’s mid-term elections in America when more than 47% of the eligible population cast a ballot. By American standards that was a huge turnout; it was just 36.7% in 2014, and 41% in 2010. That turnout did little enough to curb President Trump but it did suggest that those who hope to depose him next year need to do much better, to be more focussed and indeed hopeful. Whether the fragmented Democratic party can unite around that single purpose, and identify a candidate strong enough to bring regime change remains an open and worrying question.