Damien decided to go off on a tangent (something he’s been known to do before) and have a go at politics, blogging versus politics and the partisan party political system.
Now if he’d thrown in women (or men depending) and religion I’d have been really impressed. Perhaps a couple of disparaging remarks about Zidane’s mother to top it off and he’d be well on the way to upsetting the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time.
For two differing views on his comments have a look at Sicilian Notes who starts his second paragraph with “Blogging here, to take first things first, is completely inconsequential.” Emm OK then we’ll all shut up so. But in fairness rounds it out with “Blaming parties for pursuing policies that, shockingly, many people approve of is a pretty weak criticism.”
Follow up:
On the other side of the equation INFACTAH puts forward the following “Can we influence things? Things being the exoteric and the tangible. Look up any search phrase to do with a current event on any of the search engines and you'll find the organic listings peppered with blogs. Type "irish election", "charlie haughey", or "bebo". You get the idea. Whether Mulley believes it or not, bloggers can have an impact with or without a collective blogger consensus.” And reinforces it with “It is this blogger's opinion that it's irresponsible to say that all parties should be voted out immediately.”
Somewhere in the middle of all this are the actual politicians themselves. Many of whom are in politics not for the fame, fortune or glory but because they believe they are doing the right thing and trying to make a difference.
Nowhere in all of this has anyone commented on the people who vote in candidates based on party as opposed to the candidate’s beliefs, opinions or ideas. If you vote a candidate in just because he or she is a member of party x and don’t bother finding out what that candidate believes in or assume that because he or she is a member of a certain political party they automatically stand for certain things, do you really have anyone to blame but yourself?
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What does this post do to benfit the Irish political blogosphere? All I see are various retorts, criticism that's only slightly constructive and overanalysis.
I am not directly involved in blogging but I get the feeling that politicians will not care, or at least not enough. We have to bring the blogs to politicians, and they will only run away from all this. The stuff I've seen reminds me of bickering in the dail and politicians will not embrace more of that in their free time.
Thanks for your time
Several things.
a: highlighted the original post by Damien
b: showed that there were differing views (always a good thing)
c: passed a constructive comment that "Many of whom are in politics not for the fame, fortune or glory but because they believe they are doing the right thing and trying to make a difference. " A fact I think was missed in the previous posts.
d: asks if voters have only themselves to blame?
On average politicians won't care, you are right. Not about the bloggers individually. But as a collective they represent an active group, far more vocal than the majority coach potatoes. And as such, minority vocal groups have always garnered far more political clout than the silent majority.
As for the politicians themselves? If you were working 14 hour days doing what you felt was the right thing, would you be happy to see educated articulate informed people dismissing your work. I think you'll find that privately they pay a bit more attention than you think.
My tuppence
Logic and common sense appeal to a politician's mind. They need insight to keep their seat. Which is why I would doubt the effectiveness of blogs as much of the insight of people is wasted "insighting" other people's blogs. A hands-on approach would reap awards.
From the blogs I've read over the last months, it strikes me, an outsider of sorts, that political discussions remain in-house and are directed at a (small) blogging audience and not the general public. That can be people's choice of course.
But to start bitching about issues and criticising active moves and steps while offering half-baked commentary and feeble solutions will only serve to have ALL political blogs overlooked(Not directed at yourself personally). These political blogs remind me more of a dinner discussion which can be seen by the world but not many care to look. Meanwhile the political parties will be pounding the pavements recruiting and electioneering.
Not a bad analogy.
As regards your original post, the answer stands because this isn't a political blog, I'm not aspiring to political ends. It was and is what it is, a reference to an interesting post (it interested me) pointed to some contrary views (again I found them interesting) offered a comment that I thought had been overlooked.
"But to start bitching about issues and criticising active moves and steps while offering half-baked commentary and feeble solutions will only serve to have ALL political blogs overlooked(Not directed at yourself personally)"
I wasn't bitching about the current political status, politicians or parties. I was bitching about people who complain about politicians but can't be bothered to even find out what their candidate stands for.
I appreciate that due to my role within Ireland Offline some might think this blog was going to be politically based, or at least a soap box for the woes of broadband vis-à-vis the current political and civil service attitudes. But it's not. That's not to say I won't ever pass comment here, but that’s not what the blog is about. It's about anything that catches my eye and if in 20 years time it does nothing but provide entertainment for my kids and show them who and what I was interested in this era then it will have done more that I ever expected.