Maria Steen
Last Saturday morning at 9am, the counting of votes began on the ‘family’ and ‘care’ referendums held the day before. Soon results started to trickle through from count centres around the country. By 10am political journalists were calling it: it was a No vote in both referendums.
Following the announcement of the massive defeat, the handwringing started, with RTÉ journalists asking politicians: “Where did it all go wrong?” The answers varied: the government campaign was lacklustre, and didn’t get the message out properly; the people did not understand what they were voting for; the ‘far-right’ were to blame.
Dishonest
The truth is that government ministers were engaged in lots of debates in the run up to the referenda, and as against the No side, their messaging was widespread and clearly backed by ready funds: posters, leaflets, and social media advertising for the Yes side were plentiful.
As for voters, they understood all too well what the government was proposing, and what was at stake: a further step in the erasing and degradation of women and of motherhood, and an attack on the home and marriage. Not alone that, but we could all see that the suggestion that the proposal was designed to do something for carers and those with disabilities was as insincere as the wording was ineffective.
And as for the ‘far-right’, it would seem they now comprise 70% or so of the electorate.
The Yes campaign shone a light on all that is wrong with Irish politics: downright dishonest campaigning in which ‘facts’ were twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools; easy, empty gestures by a Government more interested in social media ‘likes’ than the difficult business of governing the country; and the elevation of so-called ‘progressive’ causes over the bread-and-butter issues that are actually affecting the lives of Irish citizens.
The result was a rejection of a political body that is out of touch with the people”
The resounding defeat tells a story: people are fed up with the stifling consensus among the political elites, in which any voices that dare to oppose the establishment line is ridiculed, rejected or ignored – or portrayed as a ‘basket of deplorables’ or more colloquially, ‘prophets of doom’. The result was a rejection of a political body that is out of touch with the people, rather than what the media would like to portray: a people out of touch with their political betters.
The Irish people saw through it all and chose to reject the mindless, de-gendered, so-called progressivism on offer. Their No vote was also a rejection of the NGO class which, funded by public monies, fell in lock-step with the politicians who write the cheques that pay their salaries. The National Women’s Council of Ireland, which pressured for this referendum, deserves a special mention here. Never has an organisation supposedly representing women done so little for so few, yet its influence over government policy is disproportionately large, purporting, as it does, to be the voice of women.
Thankfully, the women of Ireland rejected this proposal. A Sunday Independent exit poll suggested that almost 75% of women voted no to the ‘care’ referendum. Anecdotally, I can say that following the Primetime debate in which I took part, I was inundated with messages from women from all walks of life and of all political hues, expressing – some with great emotion – their vehement opposition to the proposal to erase mothers from the constitution.
Women
But the No vote was not all doom and gloom, as Micheal Martin might say. It was also a positive statement by the Irish people of gratitude and love.
It was an expression of gratitude to women for the work they do in their homes without which, most people recognise, the common good cannot be attained. It was an expression of love for mothers and the unique and irreplaceable role they play in the lives of their children and families, and a demand from mothers that the State do more to support them in their wish to care for their own children in their own homes.
It was also a demand, motivated by love, that the government do better, not just by mothers and their children, but by families and carers and those with disabilities.
And it was a recognition that the permanent, public commitment of two people to each other and to their children in marriage continues to deserve special recognition in the basic law of our country.
One friend told me that after hearing the debates, and thinking of how preciously short a time we have with our children while they are small, she decided to put in a request for a career break. Would that we had a society where children could be cared for by their own parents in the comfort and security of their own home without their parents being penalised for it in our tax system. Would that we had a society where women were respected rather than being de-gendered and erased. Would that we had a society where those with disabilities and those who care for them were given real supports.
Message
The electorate has sent a clear message to politicians that they should spend taxpayers’ funds on providing resources to those in need, rather than on NGOs and political virtue-signalling exercises that appeal primarily to their own narcissism. The political elites would do well to take note.
It was also a demand, motivated by love, that the government do better, not just by mothers and their children, but by families and carers and those with disabilities”
The No vote was not all doom and gloom, as Micheal Martin might say. It was also a positive statement by the Irish people of gratitude and love”