"I agree that political nationalism is badly letting down those who vote for them.
A growing trend that I also see among my Catholic friends is that they are thinking with their heads rather than their hearts and want to know more about what a united Ireland actually means in terms of the important issues which will effect them and their families (jobs, health, education, economy, social security, housing, political representation, policing, justice etc) and until they see that then it will be a case of ‘better the devil you know’ ie. status quo.
SF/SDLP are making no effort to get that information and by the looks of thing are simply expecting those who vote for them to jump into the darkness without knowing where they are going to land. I mean, a mock border poll in a highly partisan area? Purlezze! No wonder it got zero media attention.
Individual people standing in the solitude of a polling booth are smart, they won’t simply jump over a cliff so politicians should grab the UI issue by the horns and run with it rather than hiding from it. They should give the electorate the worts-and-all information they need about all the options available to them and allow them to make an informed decision about which is best for them rather than telling them what is best for them. That goes for political unionism as well, they need to convince as many people as possible (including Catholics) that a NI within the Union is the best option.
It could be that support for a UI is low, maybe it’s not but at least we would know and we could move on instead of stewing in our own proverbials."
On Slugger here:
