We Must be Talking

Looking ahead to the 2020 Presidential Election      Gerry OShea There is a silliness about the claims of some of the candidates for the Democratic nomination when they assert that they are in the best position to win back blue-collar workers in the Midwest who voted for Donald Trump in 2016. They claim that Hillary Clinton just did not connect with these voters; she failed to address their issues or to appeal to their emotions as Mr. Trump did successfully. So those voters will have four years of experiencing this presidency before it comes to casting the next presidential ballot. I am sure they will be influenced by how they and their families benefited from Trump's policies on taxation and healthcare, and these important matters will influence whether or not they want a continuation of the present regime. No need for Democratic pandering; let them make their judgment based on how their concerns were dealt with since 2016. Also, the Democratic candidates won't be

Democracy in Northern Ireland         Gerry O'Shea If we identify a functioning democracy as a political system where the principle of majority rule prevails, then Northern Ireland has a sad and unfortunate history.   Decades of agitation resulted in a 1914 Home Rule Bill passing in Westminster that yielded some limited powers to a government in Dublin. Irish nationalists celebrated this new proposal, seeing it as a first step to a fuller system of self-rule. However Unionists, who were strong numerically in the province of Ulster, virulently opposed any involvement with a Dublin government because they feared that Home Rule would inevitably lead to Rome Rule, and they also viewed the majority Catholic culture as inferior to what the Protestant Ascendancy had to offer.   They organized and trained a large and determined militia and imported big quantities of arms from Germany warning the British Government that they were willing to fight with guns and bombs any effo