Senator Aodhán Ó Riordáin

Irish Senator Aodhán Ó Riordáin opened the upper house of the Irish legislature (Seanad Éireann) with a statement about the United States’ election of Donald Trump. Mr. Riordáin was responding to the hypocritical congratulatory reactions from fellow Irish politicians. Riordáin opened by quoting the Irish statesman, Edmund Burke.

The only way evil can prosper if for good men to do nothing.

From there Riordáin vented the very real frustrations and fears we all feel right now about Donald Trump and the frightening way that elites around the world seem to be trying to normalize him.

America has just elected a fascist, and the best thing that good people in our government can do is to ring them up and ask him if it's okay to still bring the shamrock on St. Patrick's? He didn’t end there. And I don't use the word fascist lightly. What else would you call somebody who threatens to imprison his political opponents? What else would you call somebody who threatens to not allow people of a certain religious faith into their country? What would you say or how would you describe somebody who was trying to deport 10 million people, or say about somebody who says that the media is rigged, judiciary is rigged, the political system is rigged, and then he wins an election. He attacks the Irish government for its diplomatic statement to Trump and then goes in on how we all feel right now, across the world—watching England and America “echo” the 1930s. Please watch.