And then there’s the French election…
Unlike in Venezuela, the current French election hasn’t concluded, because it features several rounds. But in the first round, Marine Le Pen’s party has done very well:
The triumphant leader of the far-right National Front (FN), Marine Le Pen, says French voters rejected the “old political class” in regional elections that put her party top.
Nearly one-third of voters backed the anti-immigration FN, which won in six out of France’s 13 regions.
Despite the FN surge, a second round on 13 December will be the decider.
It was the first electoral test since last month’s Paris attacks, in which jihadist gunmen killed 130 people.
The nationalist FN got about 28%, ahead of the centre-right Republicans party led by former President Nicolas Sarkozy, which polled just under 27%, and the governing Socialist Party (PS), trailing with 23.5%.
Is it any wonder that people are getting more fed up with the current government(s)?
And, by the way, the appellation “far-right” for Le Pen’s party is in European terms, which are not the same as ours. Left and right there are somewhat skewed to the left of us.
Fed up with the current government?
There are plenty of Americans that would love to slap Barack. Hard.
I remember arguing with a French guy once.
He was a contractor in CA who billed CA $250 per hour.
He couldn’t solve a problem so they sent me in. I billed $95 per hour which was equivalent to a State Employee apples to apples in compensation.
I solved the problem in hours where he couldn’t for weeks.
Anyway, long story to say, one day we drove for 2 hours together and he was probably THE MOST leftist individual I knew. That did not make sense to me. He should’ve never been a $250 per hour contractor espousing the illogical views he had. He couldn’t grasp one sentence I made. Only choosing to setup Straw men (pre Obama there were strawmen people!) and play identity politics.
Mostly that’s how Democrats appeal to people. Identity politics. Example: How could you be a Republican. They are racist… etc. Even though KKK was created by Democrats and the Civil Rights act had a higher percentage of Republican support.
Right Opposition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_Opposition
Left Opposition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Opposition
A Documentary History of Communism in Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev edited by Robert V. Daniels
Under the compromises of the NEP, however, reality mde the serious application of commnist theories of the “proletarian revolution” and the “workers state” very difficult.
Morever, the civil war had bequeathed a military form of party organization that put decisive political power in the hands of stalins secretariat. While controversy rages between right, center, left, and ultra-left groups about the proper way to achieve the socialist ideal, the course of events was really dictated by the realiteis of economic backwardness and organizational power.
The uncertainty of the era of controversy came to an end with the successive victories of Stalins party machine over trotskys left opposition and bukharins right opposition.
from another wiki:
A significant current of the democratic socialist movement has defined itself in opposition to Stalinism. This includes George Orwell, H. N. Brailsford, Fenner Brockway, and the Independent Labour Party in Britain (particularly after World War II). There were also a number of anti-Stalinist socialists in France, including writers such as Simone Weil and Albert Camus as well as the group around Marceau Pivert. In America, the New York Intellectuals around the journals Partisan Review and Dissent saw Soviet Communism as a form of totalitarianism in some ways mirroring fascism.
and
Another major split in the international Communist movement was that between Stalin and the Right Opposition. In several countries parallel Communist parties were formed that either were rejected by the Comintern or distanced themselves from it.
[edited for length by n-n]
I freely admit that the electoral process in France is a great mystery to me. Apparently this is the “first round” of election to elect “leadership councils” for the various provinces. I just don’t understand what that means. It sounds pretty much like a popularity contest.
The Phenomenon of Le Pen
see section:
The Le Pen Phenomenon in the Process of Fascization
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv8n2/lepen.htm
there is a lot more, always…
🙂
THE BALLAD OF THE WHITE HORSE
By G.K. Chesterton
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1719/1719-h/1719-h.htm
The wise men know what wicked things
Are written on the sky,
They trim sad lamps, they touch sad strings,
Hearing the heavy purple wings,
Where the forgotten seraph kings
Still plot how God shall die.
The wise men know all evil things
Under the twisted trees,
Where the perverse in pleasure pine
And men are weary of green wine
And sick of crimson sea
“But in the first round, Marine Le Pen’s party has done very well” neo
Far too little, far too late.
“ISIS army of scientists set to wage chemical and biological war on West: Experts warn weapons of mass destruction ‘have been carried undetected’ into European Union”
“Isis recruiting ‘highly trained foreigners’ to produce chemical weapons
The West’s leaders are well aware of the threat:
“Paris attacks: Security around city’s water system upgraded following atrocities”
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned the country could face chemical or biological attacks
“Fears of a Biological Attack on Water Supplies in France”
But it’s far too late for America as well:
“ISIS has targeted refugee program to enter US, Homeland Security chairman says”
“Middle Eastern Men Arrested Near Mexican Border with Steel Cylinders”
Only willful denial could suppose that those steel cylinders are stainless steel water thermos containers. Had they been, they never would have been mentioned, yet the feds are silent & mass media never even reported it.
The “right” in America is constitutional with a twist of Declaration of Independence. That is to say the “right” is classical liberal tempered by Judaeo-Christian religion/morality.
Well, it was. but today too many Americans have adopted the pro-choice doctrine, which is equivalent to Islam’s Taqiya with respect to deception, but worse in that it also espouses denigration of individual dignity (e.g. class diversity, presumption of guilt based on exceptions or through extrapolation) and debasement of human life (e.g. elective abortion, clinical cannibalism).
It looks like it’s going to take more terrorist attacks (plural) on US soil before enough people here get it. We’re behind the curve, compared to France. The irony.
The French have a very strong sense of national identity. May millions wake up and resist the jihad invasion.
Speaking of France, whatever happened to Sabine Herold?
I was briefly infatuated with an image some time ago LOL
ArtfldgrsGhost Says at 4:10 pm:
“The Phenomenon of Le Pen
see section:
The Le Pen Phenomenon in the Process of Fascization
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv8n2/lepen.htm”
The link provided by Ghost is about 13 years old. I’m not sure how it applies today.
The Le Pen, Marine, who is head of the party now is the daughter of the founder and has her own ideas. I believe that the youngest Le Pen to win in the election is, Marion, a traditional Catholic woman, is Marine Le Pen’s niece.
Artfldgr:
This is LePen’s daughter. The article you posted in about her father.
His daughter kicked him out of his own party!
He was crazy anti-Jewish — she is not.
Her position is identical to that of Trump: stop Muslim immigration cold.
I don’t know if she’s reading Geller, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
&&&&&
We are in a NEW ERA.
Politicians no longer use focus groups.
Why bother?
They use social media and blogs to find the Overton Window.
They have stopped using orthodox mouthpieces like Maureen.
‘Tis better to work from the nose backwards — rather than work up from the tail.
I’ve been trying to explain to my son that, in Europe, even the far-right are socialist. This is a hard learning.
The “right” covers a much broader range of beliefs in Europe. Conservatism does, to an extent, mean to hold onto things of the past. A European rightist can be holding onto monarchy, or secular socialism, or extreme nationalism, or a relationship between church and state that a modern American wouldn’t ever understand. The only thing I can think of that the European right has in common is strong nationalism, but I could be wrong about even that.
Of all European countries, the UK has the strongest tradition of a free market and the rule of law, which are probably the two calling cards of American conservative governance. France has never been really big on the rule of law.
Because of the national identity issues, European right-wing parties are more ethnic and racist. Anti-jew, anti-gypsy, anti-anyone else. This has been changing rapidly in the last twenty years but is still true. They are also a lot more status-quo on economic matters than Free Market. That is also changing, as the previous status quo is now the Old Order, which not all of them hanker to anymore.