Quick to cite U.K. Labor Party loss as precedent for why
left-wing parties can’t win, what will U.S. media do with the massive wins for
left-wing party Sinn Fein in Irish elections?
Moderates in the U.S. were very excited to use the Jeremy
Corbyn loss as a reason why left-wing parties/candidates can’t win and should
be taken as a warning to the left in the U.S. ...but what do they do with the
new example of Sinn Fein’s enormously consequential victory in the Irish
General Elections?
The past
few years have been a harsh reality check for many on the political left across
the world. The surge of support for far right-wing candidates, political
parties, and referenda results globally has sent a chill through the hearts of
progressive, liberal, and generally left-of-center voters across the world. In
the early 2000s, after many years of consistent movement towards progressive
thinking and liberal economic positions, in the western world, a confident
repose had set in. Financial markets were steady as globalism saw huge
successes as the world grew smaller thanks to the growing ubiquity of the
internet, and social-progress was seeing a steady growth in acceptance on
issues that had not too long before been absolute taboos. This persistent
movement in one direction came to a screeching halt, most dramatically in 2016
with the results of the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump.
Those who had grown comfortable as the standard bearers of Liberal politics
through the 1990s were suddenly shaking in their boots as right-wing extremism
began to present itself as a consequential backlash to the slow progressivism
of the 90s. The response to this from the established liberal left was to
immediately close ranks and maintain a posture that their moderate position
would be the only way to gently confront such a surge of right-wing resentment.
So, when the stridently left leader
of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, was summarily and decisively
vanquished by the newly anointed Conservative Party leader, Boris Johnson, in
late 2019, centrist and moderate liberal pundits in the U.S. were quick to
point to this as reason for business as usual in the U.S. Democratic Party. The
U.S. media began running headlines and holding panel discussions drawing
comparisons between Jeremy Corbyn and those on the further-left of U.S.
politics. And this was not without some merit. While the British Labour party
is considerably to the left of any politician in the U.S., the similarities
between the U.S. right-wing movement and leader, and the U.K. right-wing
movement and leader are striking. So, the media can be forgiven for drawing
such a comparison and using it to support the belief that the moderate
‘pragmatic’, ‘incremental’ liberalism of the 90’s is the optimal path forward
for the Democratic Party. But there is a new example to draw sweeping,
broad-brush conclusions from coming across the pond.
The recent elections in the
Republic of Ireland present an entirely different message. For decades, Irish
politics has been dominated by two parties: Fine Gael (the party of the current
Taoiseach or Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar), and Fianna Fail. I will not begin
to expound on the differences between these two parties as that begins a very
long historical discussion about the Irish civil war in 1921 and overall will
not hold any relevance to the discussion about the results of the recent elections.
The primary reason that discussion doesn’t matter here is that a third party,
Sinn Fein, was the overwhelming victor in 2020. Sinn Fein, while much derided
by the British government and the conservative factions in Ireland, swept the
country with a resounding victory, garnering a decisive lead in vote share and
seats in the Dail (or Parliament). What this will mean for discussions about
the fallout of Brexit, the growing likelihood of a united island of Ireland,
and the future of U.S.-Irish relations will undoubtedly prove to be enormously
consequential. But what does it mean as a proxy example for divisions within the
Democratic Party in the U.S.?
If Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat was worth
holding up as a precedent for U.S. elections going forward, Sinn Fein’s victory
presents the opposite precedent. Sinn Fein is far to the left of any party in
the U.S., and well known as being to the left of both traditional parties in
Ireland. Sinn Fein’s current President and standard-bearer, Mary Lou McDonald,
is a forthright, charismatic, and inspiring force to be reckoned with in Irish
politics, leading a coalition of strident fresh-faces bursting into elected
positions. Sinn Fein is expected to be a considerable transition from politics
as usual in Ireland, with bold, socially liberal and economically left-wing policies
that have clearly inspired Irish voters to uproot the entrenched political
terrain in Irish government. It is a striking victory for left-wing politics,
unlike what we have seen around the world in recent years. If nothing else,
this election in Ireland should serve as aspirational and reassuring for
progressive/liberal/left-wing voters and politicians around the world who have
been wracked with fear over a continuous surge in support for far right-wing
parties globally.
Many will be eager to dismiss any
comparisons between the Irish and U.S. elections of 2020, rightly pointing to
the dramatic differences in the political landscape of the two countries. Many
were similarly eager to dismiss the correlation between the Labour defeat and
left-wing politics in the U.S. on the same grounds. But considering that the
overwhelming rejection of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party garnered enough interest
to hold it up as a kaleidoscope through which to view the upcoming U.S.
election in the media, so too should the overwhelming support for Mary Lou
McDonald’s Sinn Fein. While neither ultimately reflects what may or may not
happen in the U.S., if one deserves a news-cycle’s worth of punditry, so too
does the other. And Sinn Fein’s victory in the Irish elections is at least a
paradigmatic shift in the surge of right-wing extremism we have been seeing in
so many countries around the world over the last few years. But, unfortunately,
this election in Ireland will more than likely be entirely ignored by U.S.
media for reasons that will not be speculated on here.
