I have spent quite a bit of time trying to convince Irish farmers to be left-wing, to understand that imperialism is the reason their gas prices are high and not the carbon tax. One of the biggest obstacles is that to them the urban left and liberals dismiss them as lost causes. Of course they don’t vote for snobs who don’t know wtf the CAP is and think that everyone outside of Dublin is an idiot redneck. Of course they listen to the silver-tongued devils of the right.
They were consistently surprised I care at all. Is that not shameful?
I live in Washington State, which is a similar size to Ireland. I live on the east side of the state in the second most populated city. Similar to Cork. It has much of the same dynamic. Dublin being like Seattle to us. Everyone loves to complain about the biggest city am I right? So anyways we have one Federal Represenitive for our side of the state and it was usually a liberal and at one point one of the most powerful in Congress (Tom Folley) but since then the Republicans have dominated the slot. Thing is that our area is mostly farm land.
I understand what you are getting at but the reality is that the farmers are not voting in their best interst most of the time. Identity politics are more import to them then the politics of supporting rural farm life. They would rather vote for the person that paints urban voters as haters and gay and baby killers then vote for the liberal that wants to support their school systems and make the environment healthy by controlling the pollution or overuse of the land. Its maddness and frustrating and I see it in real time because I am engaged with it both in personal life and my job.
I get what you mean. I won’t pretend like bigotry isn’t a core plank of the platform of the GOP or Independent Ireland. Still, an awful lot of bigoted people still felt the allure of people like Bernie Sanders and may join a trade union in certain circumstances. Such things also go a long way towards moving them away from bigotry if they succeed, because it shows that gay people and migrants were never the thing making them miserable.
My point though is moreso that saying that the farmers had it coming and giving up on them is not how one digs one’s way out of the pit one is stuck in. I don’t particularly wanna turn my back on conservative communities as irreparably fucked and feel proud of being smarter than them. I would like the community around me to be better. And saying that the farmers had it coming rather than using the opportunity to push them left is essentially patting oneself on the back for moral superiority rather than making life better.
I’m a migrant myself. I chose to come another country and integrate myself. I’d quite like it to be nicer, y’know?
I have spent quite a bit of time trying to convince Irish farmers to be left-wing, to understand that imperialism is the reason their gas prices are high and not the carbon tax. One of the biggest obstacles is that to them the urban left and liberals dismiss them as lost causes. Of course they don’t vote for snobs who don’t know wtf the CAP is and think that everyone outside of Dublin is an idiot redneck. Of course they listen to the silver-tongued devils of the right.
They were consistently surprised I care at all. Is that not shameful?
I live in Washington State, which is a similar size to Ireland. I live on the east side of the state in the second most populated city. Similar to Cork. It has much of the same dynamic. Dublin being like Seattle to us. Everyone loves to complain about the biggest city am I right? So anyways we have one Federal Represenitive for our side of the state and it was usually a liberal and at one point one of the most powerful in Congress (Tom Folley) but since then the Republicans have dominated the slot. Thing is that our area is mostly farm land.
I understand what you are getting at but the reality is that the farmers are not voting in their best interst most of the time. Identity politics are more import to them then the politics of supporting rural farm life. They would rather vote for the person that paints urban voters as haters and gay and baby killers then vote for the liberal that wants to support their school systems and make the environment healthy by controlling the pollution or overuse of the land. Its maddness and frustrating and I see it in real time because I am engaged with it both in personal life and my job.
I get what you mean. I won’t pretend like bigotry isn’t a core plank of the platform of the GOP or Independent Ireland. Still, an awful lot of bigoted people still felt the allure of people like Bernie Sanders and may join a trade union in certain circumstances. Such things also go a long way towards moving them away from bigotry if they succeed, because it shows that gay people and migrants were never the thing making them miserable.
My point though is moreso that saying that the farmers had it coming and giving up on them is not how one digs one’s way out of the pit one is stuck in. I don’t particularly wanna turn my back on conservative communities as irreparably fucked and feel proud of being smarter than them. I would like the community around me to be better. And saying that the farmers had it coming rather than using the opportunity to push them left is essentially patting oneself on the back for moral superiority rather than making life better.
I’m a migrant myself. I chose to come another country and integrate myself. I’d quite like it to be nicer, y’know?