For the last 50 days, the Republic of Ireland has been without a government. The government shutdown is due to the country's current lack of a prime minister, also known as the Taoiseach. Former Taoiseach, Edna Kelly, was not voted back into his position during the country's first parliamentary vote on March 10. Since then, Ireland's parliament or the Dáil, has held two additional votes with no avail.
As a self-proclaimed Irish culture addict, I have followed the country's current government situation as closely as I have followed the presidential primaries here in the U.S. As I've read about the debates between members in the Dáil, I've seen an uncanny resemblance to our own House of Representatives.
Ireland has a wide array of political parties within their political system, but currently the two parties with the most parliament members are Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. In comparison to the United States, think of Fine Gael as the GOP and Fianna Fáil as the Democratic Party.
Out of the 158 seats within the Dáil, Fine Gael holds 50 seats and Fianna Fáil holds 44. The remaining 64 seats belong to representatives of other political parties. Reading about the dynamics of Ireland's parliament, I've come to think that incorporating a third party into the United States government would be more than beneficial to our current political situation.
Before you start questioning my credibility, let me clarify that I do know there are more than two political parties in the United States. But do we ever see any of our third party options on any of our ballots? No. As the American people, we should fight to make at least one of the third parties more prevalent in our country's government. Our two-party political system is currently failing us. We're stuck in a limbo of voting for "the lesser of two evils" and it shouldn't be that way. We should be confident in our choices for president. Plain and simple.
At this point, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Erica, that stuff in Ireland sounds like the 2013 Federal Government Shutdown on steroids. Why would we want to make our government even slightly like theirs?"
Yes, from the surface, the lack of government in Ireland does have an eerie resemblance to what happened three years ago, but after reading more on the situation, I've found that the reason Ireland is taking so long to come to a consensus is quite simple. They're actually trying to fix some of their problems instead of slapping a Band-Aid on top of them and calling it good. This is thanks to the remaining 64 representatives in the Dáil.
According to an article published last Thursday in the Independent (right after the third parliamentary vote took place), the 14 independent representatives in the Dáil would not discuss forming a new government with either Fine Gael's leader, Edna Kelly or Finna Fáil's leader, Micheál Martin, unless the two agreed that they would give each other support in the event of either party becoming Taoiseach.
From what I can see, the additional parties in the Dáil are like moderators. They make sure the people of Ireland are not pushed around by the two parties in power and they make sure minority views are heard alongside those of the majority. While Ireland's current situation is not ideal, the government shutdown is forcing political leaders to discuss pressing national issues like Irish Water and the Universal Social Charge. The same could happen in the United States if the independent party became a third option on our ballots each year.
If we had simply one more major party in the United States, it could help buffer the obvious tension between the GOP and the Democrats. Independents, while having varying views from our two major parties, also are willing to weigh the opinions of their competition. They would be our moderators. An independent party could help clear up any stalemates that occur while the House is in session and it would also give us one additional presidential candidate to vote for during presidential elections (I can think of quite a few people who would be more than open to that idea in our current primaries).
With Ireland in such similar chaos as our own, it may be best to take notes. Seeing what aspects do and don't work for them may strengthen our country in the long run.
