This is because of what we called "new criteria" where people decide which topic they decide to talk about. This maybe based on their experience, intuition, interest and culture.
How the issues are interpreted and the emphasis given to them would also matter. Study shows that bad news is more newsworthy than good news.
I think he felt happy and thankful to all the people who had voted for him. knowing that they have faith in him and he believed that the people who had voted for him believed in him and put their trust in him.
The action of the speaker that can be considered ironic is that actually the speaker takes initiative of establishing the wall up to himself but then he questions it and has some doubts about that. There is another irony, I would say, the main one, you may find it useful : the wall which was meant to separate neighbours brings them together every year in order to repair it. Is it really the borderline?Hope that helps.
