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Jun 19, 2021Liked by Conor Fitzgerald

The NGO aspect of this is horrible, obviously. But I expect them to act that way, in an effort to maximize their own power and resources. And as it has been shown in Britain, getting rid of the NGOs is harder than setting them up. The "bonfire of the quangos" never quite happened as promised. And I doubt that any changes to Ireland being a division of Apple would do much to alter this state of affairs. The only thing that I believe could is a committed form of politics that names the enemy and seeks to defeat them. And this is tough to talk about, because Irish politics is so depressingly bad, but I don't see the alternative.

I continue to be baffled as to why something like this has not developed. Fianna Fail either should have dissolved into thin air 10 years ago, or it should have dropped the AKP/United Russia/Liberal Party of Canada type transactional big tent politics, kicked out the developer boys club, and become a real ideological right of center party with a Catholic hue to match its voting base. Fine Gael may be pure neoliberalism personified, but they have to realize that the NGO sector is brimming with people who despise them, right? Everything I've seen from the dissident right parties so far reflects an unappealing form of amateurism.

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