The traditional schism between the major parties is irrelevant - it's time for new politics, writes ELAINE BYRNE
BARACK OBAMA has a lot to answer for.
" . . . a new kind of leadership, a new kind of politics. A politics of vision and openness and direction and optimism . . . the desire for change." No, not Obama, but Enda Kenny in Wexford.
Apart from citing "change" 11 times in his televised address, Enda also managed to metamorphose Obama's "Yes We Can" catch-cry into the rather odd "No It's Not". The Fine Gael national conference ended to the music of Bruce Springsteen, who as it happens, is a committed Obama campaigner.
Obama raised expectations about daring to hope in the politics of possibility. With a media obsession about the leadership of Fine Gael, promoted by Enda's poor satisfaction ratings in recent opinion polls, Enda perhaps did his cause no favours courting comparisons with Obama.
Indeed, in the warm-up speech, Richard Bruton was very pointed in his remarks about "those in the media who doubted . . . Enda Kenny". Enough already about the leadership of Fine Gael. There is something far more fundamental at issue.
I turn 30 shortly. As a birthday present to myself, I've made a resolution to try to end the Civil War. Bear with me . . .
In his recent lecture to the Dublin Notre Dame Centre, Robert Schmuhl, Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, spoke of the Irish character trait which cultivates "history with the care of master gardeners - often finding the past as compelling and as controversial as any contemporary affair".
This is in contrast to an American approach to history.
In 1916, Obama's hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, wrote: "We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history that we make today."
History was made with Obama's victory. Writing on that momentous November day, the New York Timescolumnist Thomas Friedman said that the election of a black man to the highest political office had now ended the American civil war.
Opposing approaches to Northern Ireland formed the basis for the establishment of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The Belfast Agreement, 10 years ago, made this traditional schism irrelevant. If we were honest with ourselves, most people in the South have never crossed the Border and regrettably, do not care about the North.
We are insalubriously fixated by interim opinion polls. To entertain this appetite, let's look at the only polls that matter.
The highest to date combined Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael vote, 84.6 per cent, occurred in the first 1982 election. This was reduced by almost 20 percentage points to 68.9 per cent in the 2007 election. Recent polls, at 65 per cent, demonstrate a persistent decline in their combined vote. The dynamics of Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael politics has changed.
At a time when we desperately need to trust our political leaders, their satisfaction ratings are disquietingly low. Does this indicate something much deeper about our political system? This has been a defining year in Irish public life - a year when politics itself is on trial.
The most popular taoiseach of the modern era resigned amid mounting pressure about his personal finances. Those opposing the Lisbon Treaty were not perceived by the public as politicians, and in turn, many among the public voted against the political establishment. Meanwhile, we are potentially in the worst financial crisis since the State was founded.
Loyalty to political parties has diminished and the proportion of swing voters is now higher. The joint TCD-UCD study The Irish Voter, published this year, argued that because "voters do not choose on policy grounds is not necessarily because they are unwilling; it may be that they are not offered much of a choice".
My peers, many now forced to emigrate, probably identify more with an American president of Offaly descent than a Taoiseach of Offaly birth. Now would be a good time for new politics, to end Civil War politics.
Enda last week summed up the differences between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil as never having had a corrupt leader, telling the truth about the economy, combining decisiveness with direction and putting the public interest first.
When Enda talks of a new politics and a desire to change, I want to believe him. But it shouldn't be couched in an ambition to be numerically bigger than Fianna Fáil simply because of the belief that you can "manage" things better. His party has a long, and proud, history of change. Sinn Féin's split during the Civil War led to the establishment of WT Cosgrave's Cumann na nGaedhael in 1923 and finally Fine Gael in 1933.
Fine Gael has changed its identity three times in the 20th century. It should be brave enough to do so again. The election of a taoiseach from a non-Civil War party would genuinely end Ireland's Civil War. Maybe then the comparisons with Obama would be more credible.
Springsteen's new album, by the way, is called Working on a Dream. Let's make new history.