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Macron Wins Re-Election in France

Emmanuel Macron has been re-elected in France. The world should give a sigh of relief that French voters were rational enough to recognize the threat his uber right-wing challenger, Marine Le Pen, posed to France.

Ms. Le Pen,softening her image if not her anti-immigrant nationalist program, rode a wave of alienation and disenchantment to bring the extreme right closer to power than at any time since 1944. Her National Rally party has joined the mainstream, even if at the last minute many French people seem to have voted for Mr. Macron to ensure that France not succumb to the xenophobic vitriol of the darker passages of its history.

...If Brexit was a blow to unity, a French nationalist quasi-exit, as set out in Ms. Le Pen’s proposals, would have left the European Union on life support. That, in turn, would have crippled an essential guarantor of peace on the continent in a volatile moment.

Le Pen has conceded defeat.

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  • Display: Sort:
    This is what I expected. (none / 0) (#1)
    by Chuck0 on Sun Apr 24, 2022 at 04:27:48 PM EST
    There is always a bunch of hoopla over Marie Le Pen in the primaries in France. Lots of hand wringing. Then she always loses. This result was no surprise to me.

    Still (5.00 / 3) (#2)
    by CaptHowdy on Sun Apr 24, 2022 at 05:13:10 PM EST
    From 66% last time to 58% this time.  

    Parent
    Worth noting also (none / 0) (#3)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 07:54:49 AM EST
    That this was with her support and admiration of Putin front and center and with him in the process of committed by war crimes.  Not far from France.

    Consider what happens next time if she gains another 8 points.

    Parent

    I am not (none / 0) (#4)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 08:08:27 AM EST
    sure what we should do. Trump openly admired Putin and look at that result. He almost won reelection & it certainly didn't seem to hurt him in 2016. Are people just so frustrated they will accept fascism as a solution?

    Parent
    If you mean Americans we could STFU (none / 0) (#5)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 08:47:37 AM EST
    about "defunding the police" and socialism.

    Parent
    And, do not (5.00 / 2) (#7)
    by KeysDan on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 09:04:29 AM EST
    ignore the lies, call them out as LIES.  No falsehoods, or.misinformation stuff.   An ant-lie squad is needed--grooming, CRT, parent rights.  And, not to forget Senator Rick Scott, chair of the senate re-election committee, and his plan  to increase taxes on the poor and middle class, sunset laws on all federal programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  Rich, coming from Scott, the Medicare fraudster.

    Parent
    Yes (5.00 / 3) (#8)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 09:08:47 AM EST
    They have to nationalize the election.   Turn every republican into Trump.  Which is not hard.

    IMO the have to run against the Republican Party.  Exactly by calling out what they have said and done.

    Parent

    I have been (none / 0) (#10)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 12:04:36 PM EST
    saying for probably about at least a decade that the party needs to run against conservatism. The GOP is the main conduit for conservatism but conservatism is the problem.

    Conservatism is also ridiculous. They lie about  less government" but then write laws making pregnant women basically birthing slaves. They love "Big Gubmint" as long as "Big Gubmint" is enforcing conservative social standards.  

    Parent

    At this point, (none / 0) (#11)
    by KeysDan on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 12:21:38 PM EST
    conservatism might be welcome. At least, as an interim mode of governing until the pendulum swings back to sanity.  However, the struggle is now against fascism. White Christo-authoritarian nationalism ready to go with a Republican senate, house and executive.   The Supreme Court is there already. And, no retreat, never giving up power.  

    Parent
    We should welcome conservatism (none / 0) (#13)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 01:13:47 PM EST
    The current republican party has nothing whatever to do with conservatism.  It's ridiculous to call Trumpism conservativism.


    conservatism
    1.
    commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation.
    "proponents of theological conservatism"


    Parent
    They (none / 0) (#17)
    by FlJoe on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 01:48:59 PM EST
    do want "traditional values", where the white rich men ruled the roost.

    Despite all their so called Christian piety, they long for the strict patriarchy of the old testament, they really do not have time for all that Jesus lovey dovey stuff.

    If you don't smite your enemies God will (as long are your dues are paid) maybe he will ask for you to sacrifice a child or something and occasionally stick you with with an a-hole king, but at least you are still on top of the heap.

    Parent

    You are conflating reactionary Christianity (none / 0) (#18)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 01:55:15 PM EST
    With conservatism.  Excuseable I guess considering recent history but it's not the same thing.

    Real conservative resistance to change would be continuing the long history of separation of church and state.

    Real conservatism is not what you describe.

    But the republican party has not been truly conservative in decades.

    Parent

    I (5.00 / 1) (#19)
    by FlJoe on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 02:34:52 PM EST
    was using religion as a guide to their "traditional values", there has long been serious interlap between them.

    IMO their "traditional" guidestar has been receding into the past, in the 60's and 70's and even 80's it was more or less let's go back to the 50's where everyone knew their place, at least on the surface. Certainly starting at least with Nixon you found some of the indications that it was resetting back to the 1870s (Jim crow wasn't that bad and the wimmenfolk really, really knew their place).

    Thru the nineties it morphed into "God is on our side we must destroy our enemy, morality optional". Now it's fck it, the rich white guys get everything, morality is for suckers.

    Parent

    Currently (none / 0) (#25)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 07:51:56 PM EST
    conservatism is Trumpism. If you want old style conservatism to come back then you are going to have to kill off the current form of conservatism.

    Parent
    The (none / 0) (#12)
    by FlJoe on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 01:07:54 PM EST
    problem being the main weapon against lies is the truth, and the truth does not even work anymore.

    The right is beyond mere lies, they have moved on to pure fabulism, they make up stuff out of whole cloth and immediately act on it and there is no amount of debunking that can fight it.

    Parent

    Well (none / 0) (#9)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 12:00:57 PM EST
    I would agree that idiotic Branch Bernidians are actually aiding and abetting this. Even in France the far left voters were voting for Le Pen.

    Parent
    Bernie (5.00 / 1) (#14)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 01:15:34 PM EST
    Is not the source of most of this krap.

    Parent
    Branch Bernidian (none / 0) (#26)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 07:53:06 PM EST
    equals people like Glenn Greenwald and his cohorts not Bernie personally.

    Parent
    Is the glass (none / 0) (#15)
    by KeysDan on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 01:21:43 PM EST
    half full or half empty?   Given the political situation in which fascism is on the rise(you would think Europe would have learned by now), the impingement of Covid on electoral politics, and French politics, in general,  I see the win with a 17 point margin as being a case where that sword is mightier than le pen.

    The French people do not usually swoon over their presidents; Macron is the first incumbent president re-elected in two decades.   There are continued memories of Chirac and Sarkozy.  Macron is just 44-years old and has made some blunders such as proposing a change in the age for retirement--changes in hard-won social benefits never ride well in France.

    The French presidency term of office is five years with one consecutive term possible.  While a re-match next time around may not be possible, the half empty part to deal with is Le Pen becoming mainstream.  Scary, but the West can take this win at a crucial time.


    Parent

    Sure (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 01:30:47 PM EST
    It's a win.  But Putin, who she was clearly publicly linked to, is at this moment and at every moment during this French election season committing horrendous war crimes at the geographical equivalent of Missouri from DC.  In their literal back yard.

    And she still increased her margin by 8 points from last time.

    And he really a very good politician.

    So perhaps a quiet celebration.

    Parent

    He (none / 0) (#6)
    by KeysDan on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 08:53:01 AM EST
    made them wear masks, so what else can you do but vote straight fascist?

    Parent
    Just now on MSNBC an analyst (none / 0) (#20)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 04:51:06 PM EST
    Says, I rewound to get the quote right because I think it's dead on -

    "It was a great victory for democracy..blah blah...BUT 40% of the French electorate some 30 million French people voted for LaPen.  In a sense this election normalized the far right in France.  Ever since the second WW when you had a government under controll of the Nazis effectively the French have shunned the far right.
    And 30 million of them this time around did not shun the far right.  A kind of psychological barrier has been broken in France whereby it's now "acceptable" to vote for Marine LaPen and her platform and her xenophobic anti-immigrant anti-EU anti-NATO pro Putin policies.
    I think that is now  become acceptable.

    And she's not going anywhere."

    Yes.  What she said.

    It still is amazing (none / 0) (#21)
    by KeysDan on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 05:25:30 PM EST
    to me that TFG got 74.2 million votes. {Biden got 81.2 million votes]    After four years of incompetence, authoritarianism, and kleptocracy--impeached twice and, likely, a Russian asset, 74 million wanted another four years of it. Le Pen is a piker in comparison.

    And, now, after being a ringleader of January 6, he will probably be the Republican Party's choice for candidate in 2024.  

     

    Parent

    It's racism. (5.00 / 1) (#22)
    by desertswine on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 05:35:07 PM EST
    More people than (none / 0) (#23)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 05:40:03 PM EST
    ever voted for anyone in a US election in history.

    Except one.

    IMO if there is a silver lining of hope it's that people were motivated.  More than they have ever been motivated.

    Let's hope they stay that way is all.

    Parent

    That is (none / 0) (#24)
    by Ga6thDem on Mon Apr 25, 2022 at 07:50:58 PM EST
    what I have been saying into this whole the GOP is gonna romp in November. People seems to me anyway have stayed largely engaged when usually they leave politics once the presidential election is over.


    Parent
    A lot can happen between now and November. (5.00 / 1) (#27)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Apr 26, 2022 at 03:34:40 PM EST
    If any one group is disengaged, it's probably many members of the D.C. / N.Y. press corps, who base their analyses on old political tropes, false equivalencies and horse race analogies.

    These are, after all, many of the same people who were recently salivating / wringing their hands over the prospect of a possible Marine Le Pen triumph in the just-concluded French presidential election, and only last year were writing the political obituary of California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the Sept. 2021 recall election.

    I've said before that their perspective on the rest of the country and world outside the D.C. / N.Y. circuit is the often akin to the outward view from the inside of a goldfish bowl. They've given me no reason to think otherwise of them. You have a much better read on the state of Georgia's political affairs than they ever will.

    Aloha.

    Aloha.

    Parent