Members of Political Parties are Incapable of Independent Thought. Discuss.

[SeamusNapoleon]

The lunatics are having to take over their asylum, necessatated because of the bad leadership of the crew who fell asleep at the tiller.

What a bizzare mix of metaphors

[Libero]

What a bizzare mix of metaphors

Is it really that bizarre to compare Ireland to a floating asylum?

Sometimes I think the most sane of us all are the party hacks. There must be a certain serenity in being on-message at every point in time. (Then again, the passive-aggressive stance of most party hacks betrays their insecurity.)

It must be tough being Peter Matthews TD right now. On the one hand, he is correct in agonising over the new government's continuance of braindead Fianna Fáil policies. On the other hand, fermenting dissent in the main government party can only aid Fianna Fáil. What to do?

[hairylemon]

Something I notice often on this site is that members of political parties almost always tow the party line. Whatever their party says, they will defend it to the death, even if the week previous, the party may have had the opposite view and the poster likewise. This is not a thread for making accusations against particular posters but it is obvious that some FG members who attacked FF for their budget policies last year now advocate such moves under FG/LAB.
It is this sort of blatent political Zombieism which contributes to where we are. But is it true of all party members? I have no problem whatsoever with people joining parties, but I don't like how they defend their party to the death even if they personally disagree but they would never say that!
I'll throw it to the forum.

Note. I am not making any accusations against any particular poster(s) so if some retaliate which I expect, let this be the warning.

not true dude, i am currently a member of FG, nobody could ever accuse me of being a party toadie.

If i see an injustice, i attack it, regardless to what the parties policy is, i have supported ideas and policies from other parties if i deem them to be worth pursuing, that even includes FF, not that they have had an original thought between them for 50 years.

I have found that since the general election, that FG and some of our ministers have been dissapointing, Varadkar, Reilly, ************************ter and Phil Hogan have been throwing their weight around, none of them have made any genuine impact in their relevant departments.

Frankly, at this time, i see FG as the best of a bad bunch, what is needed is the formation of a new centre right Euro sceptic party, until that happens, then i will remain FG and at least try to sway party opinion in my direction, but being a realist, neither is likely to happen

[Boggle]

not true dude, i am currently a member of FG, nobody could ever accuse me of being a party toadie.

If i see an injustice, i attack it, regardless to what the parties policy is, i have supported ideas and policies from other parties if i deem them to be worth pursuing, that even includes FF, not that they have had an original thought between them for 50 years.

I have found that since the general election, that FG and some of our ministers have been dissapointing, Varadkar, Reilly, ************************ter and Phil Hogan have been throwing their weight around, none of them have made any genuine impact in their relevant departments.

Frankly, at this time, i see FG as the best of a bad bunch, what is needed is the formation of a new centre right Euro sceptic party, until that happens, then i will remain FG and at least try to sway party opinion in my direction, but being a realist, neither is likely to happen

I'm afraid to say that unless you are in a position where you are actively seeking to run for office then your hardly much of a yardstick.

Can you say that if you were a (wannabe) TD and you objected to a policy that you'd speak out publicly? Or will you just hide behind the whip and defend a bad policy?