LAST UPDATE | 11 Dec 2022
AS THE END of the year rapidly approaches, welcome to the first instalment of what will hopefully turn into an annual tradition: my political awards for 2022. I have devised six categories and, given the remit of this column, I have selected Irish and American winners.
There surely will be readers who concur with my choices and perhaps plenty more who won’t. So have it out in the comments or on social media. Here goes.
Midterms in the United States and Housing in Ireland (I know it’s unusual to bestow an award on a story; please grant me the licence!)
The icing on the midterms’ cake for the Democrats came in the form of incumbent US Senator Raphael Warnock’s triumph in the Georgia run-off over Herschel Walker, the beleaguered ex-football star. The Baptist pastor’s was a narrow victory.
Still, the impact is significant. Having 51 seats in the upper house means that judges will be confirmed more expeditiously and the clout wielded by West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin will diminish. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s defection from the party apparently will not alter the equation.
This was predicted to be and should have been, a very good election for the GOP. Three factors damaged their standard bearers in contests across the country to varying degrees, depending on the particular dynamics in states or constituencies.
Democrats have mastered early voting; the reversal of Roe vs Wade motivated a typically unengaged cohort of the citizenry, comprised mainly of women and young people, to cast ballots; and, influenced by Trump’s ultimately counterproductive stamps of approval, Republican primary voters put forward some dreadful candidates.
In Ireland, housing dominated and looks set to remain the number one issue. While the Government contends that its “Housing for All” plan is addressing the shortage of supply and is beginning to yield dividends, relief can’t arrive soon enough for those struggling to put or keep a roof over their heads.
Sinn Féin continues to be the political beneficiary of what many regard as the colossal failure of consecutive governments. It is pushing for massive state intervention to ameliorate the crisis. There is an appetite out there for what is being promised, yet as Sinn Féin’s foes have responded, it’s much easier to throw rocks from the sidelines than it is to solve the problem.
Irish Times’ Inside Politics and Boston’s The Horse Race
For those of us who consume political coverage and analysis voraciously, podcasts are a necessary supplement. In this vein, Inside Politics from The Irish Times is consistently excellent.
The weekly content fluctuates – from deep dives into polling data, to interviews with impressive guests, to reflections on key developments from the newspaper’s correspondents – but there are regularly kernels of insight and information that can’t be gleaned elsewhere.
I had to bring it all the way back home for my US favourite. Truth be told, even if it’s not of much interest to an Irish audience, I am vastly more engrossed in and animated by the ins and outs of local politics in my native Massachusetts than the national picture.
The Horse Race is a wonderful resource for me, and I recommend it strongly to the many people here with ties to the Boston area. The presenters mix levity and serious discussion very well. Although it’s not hard to discern that their own leanings are left of centre, they deserve credit for giving conservative aspirants and ideas a fair hearing in liberal territory.
Governor-Elect Wes Moore and Senator Eileen Flynn
Many observers of politics stateside allege that there is sparse talent on the bench ready to replace the elderly stalwarts of the Democratic Party. This is not the case.
One of the next generation is the Governor-Elect of Maryland, Wes Moore. Only 44, his state’s first Black governor is both a Rhodes Scholar and a decorated veteran of war in the Middle East. He has a broad range of public and private sector experience and just completed a stint as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty non-profit in New York.
Moore says that he is a socially moderate and fiscally responsible Democrat. And he identifies prominent centrists in his party as political role models. Now that he is in the arena, Moore will be challenged. If he performs well under the pressure that inheres in his new office, he will instantly morph into a major player. Watch that space.
Appointed the first Traveller to Seanad Éireann by Micheál Martin in 2020, Eileen Flynn has been a powerful advocate and vocal presence in Leinster House on women’s rights and on priorities for marginalised individuals and groups in Irish society.
One doesn’t have to always sympathise with her perspective to admire how unafraid she is to ruffle feathers in her contributions to debates in the Oireachtas and on the airwaves. It is precisely because the Seanad offers a platform to people like Senator Flynn – whose voices mightn’t otherwise have the same reach – that it was worth saving in 2013.
Dublin Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy
“There may be an electoral area out there with enough vegans to elect a councillor, it’s definitely not in Limerick.” So wrote Green Party Councillor Seán Hartigan in a WhatsApp group text that was seen by the Irish Independent in the wake of the cancellation of the live animal Christmas crib at the Mansion House by Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy.
Also in that group, the Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan averred that she was “not keen on live animals at any event, but it is very difficult for me to argue the toss on this…The live crib is of little or no importance in terms of animal rights, but we are expending a huge amount of our limited political capital on it.”
I don’t have much to add to these salient assessments. This certainly was not the worst political decision made in 2022 and, yes, it is rather trifling in the grand scheme of things. In a sense, it is refreshing that Lord Mayor Conroy has the courage of her convictions.
That said, hers was a totally unforced error, a blunder. The abandonment of this revered custom was a very special gift to rural politicians (even if Fine Gael took it to the extreme), at odds with the sentiments of a substantial majority of voters and exactly what the Greens did not need at the moment. The dismayed reaction of her party colleagues speaks for itself.
Donald Trump
In the US, Donald Trump absolutely warrants the loser moniker. He had an amazing win in 2016. Ever since, his outsized persona – note that I am referring to the man himself, not the politically advantageous fashion in which he has recalibrated American conservatism – has been a drag on the Republican Party.
After a poor showing in the midterms, for which he shoulders a big share of the blame, the question is if they will follow him to political doom in 2024.
Joe Biden and Mary Lou McDonald
Some will object to my opting for President Biden. Too old, too doddery, never exceptionally intelligent, unable to fulfil his duties as commander-in-chief. Inflation is rampant. Violent crime is on the rise in cities. The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan was a disaster. And what’s he actually done?
There is validity to the criticisms. Yet the reality is that he has gotten core elements of his legislative agenda through a divided US Congress. He has helped take down the temperature in a country splintered along multiple fault lines. And, whether he was to the fore of the minds of women and men as they delivered their verdict in last month’s midterms or not, Democrats fared better than almost anyone expected under his stewardship.
Going by these crucial criteria, President Biden is now the premier American politician. The world awaits the announcement, scheduled for early 2023, of his intentions with respect to pursuing a second term.
In Ireland, many presume Mary Lou McDonald, as leader of the ascendant Sinn Féin, is destined to succeed Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach, subsequent to a general election.
Manifestly, she is a formidable politician. Shane Ross’s unauthorised biography of her precipitated scrutiny of her affairs and a brief period during which some claimed she was hiding from journalists. Nonetheless, she seems to have weathered the mini-storm relatively unscathed.
But the road ahead does not lack bumps and obstacles. The Sunday Independent reported that 60% of people believe there is a connection between gangland crime in Dublin and “provisional republicanism.” This has been strongly refuted by the Sinn Féin leader but opinion surveys like this poke big holes in McDonald’s rhetoric on the impending reunification of the two jurisdictions on this island.
Rumblings from aggrieved Sinn Féin councillors and members persist, as do rumours about how the party is run, who calls the shots and why its internal processes diverge so greatly from those of its counterparts.
Finally, Sinn Féin’s rise is pretty directly attributable to the housing crisis; it is widely perceived to possess the answers to that conundrum. As much as it has been a blessing, that could prove a curse in time.
Today, however, McDonald and her party are riding high. If we were to rewind the clock of history not all that far, many esteemed commentators would have sworn that they would not be a healthy distance in front of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the polls at this juncture. Accordingly, I think Mary Lou McDonald is the Irish politician of 2022. Larry Donnelly is a Boston lawyer, a Law Lecturer at the University of Galway and a political columnist with TheJournal.ie.
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