Although I agree with your analysis of the election I think the point that is not being made is that, in general, elections are anticlimactic; that an alternative SF victory would not alter the political landscape in any meaningful way.
Sinn Féin has had no coherent political thesis since its adoption of a singularly parliamentary strategy at least; and it could be argued that Provisional Sinn Féin never had a coherent political thesis. Its historical development has been one of pure opportunism whose only radical principle was the blatant political truism that most every right thinking Irish republican holds to, that of a united Ireland free from British colonialism. Before the GFA Privisional Sinn Féin had a synchronicity with other anti-imperialist movements yet always refused to adopt a clear anti-imperialist strategy preferring a charismatic revolutionary romanticism over principled class analysis and a military strategy to follow suit. The exodus of genuine revolutionary republican voices from the party in the decade following the GFA is telling of the slow move rightward; a move that came naturally to a party dominated by charismatic leaders who were transforming bourgeois property holders in the process of demilitarisation (maybe even prior to the GFA). I held the foolish belief that SF were a revolutionary republican party when I joined them in 2018; only to discover that the party was quickly in the process of becoming a social democratic/liberal party, whose manifesto in 2019 had not one single instance of the word "nationalisation" or "landlord", whose members refused to discuss anything beyond the most surface level political theses. A SF government would not have the political courage to make the necessary changes to the organisation of the Irish state apparatus and economic regime.
Although I agree with your analysis of the election I think the point that is not being made is that, in general, elections are anticlimactic; that an alternative SF victory would not alter the political landscape in any meaningful way.
Sinn Féin has had no coherent political thesis since its adoption of a singularly parliamentary strategy at least; and it could be argued that Provisional Sinn Féin never had a coherent political thesis. Its historical development has been one of pure opportunism whose only radical principle was the blatant political truism that most every right thinking Irish republican holds to, that of a united Ireland free from British colonialism. Before the GFA Privisional Sinn Féin had a synchronicity with other anti-imperialist movements yet always refused to adopt a clear anti-imperialist strategy preferring a charismatic revolutionary romanticism over principled class analysis and a military strategy to follow suit. The exodus of genuine revolutionary republican voices from the party in the decade following the GFA is telling of the slow move rightward; a move that came naturally to a party dominated by charismatic leaders who were transforming bourgeois property holders in the process of demilitarisation (maybe even prior to the GFA). I held the foolish belief that SF were a revolutionary republican party when I joined them in 2018; only to discover that the party was quickly in the process of becoming a social democratic/liberal party, whose manifesto in 2019 had not one single instance of the word "nationalisation" or "landlord", whose members refused to discuss anything beyond the most surface level political theses. A SF government would not have the political courage to make the necessary changes to the organisation of the Irish state apparatus and economic regime.
Perhaps I am just a cynic though :)
Does not saying how you voted mean you don't want to say you voted to have a Sinn Féin-led government?
Ha, quite the opposite, I'd love one! I live in New York currently so I wasn't able to vote, first time since 2007.
So how would have voted?
1. PBP 2. SF 3. SD probably
Thanks.