Who doesn’t love a rebranding attempt:
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Sunday that her National Front party would undergo a “profound transformation” and a top aide said its name would change after a decisive defeat in the presidential election.
“The National Front must also renew itself,” Le Pen told supporters near Paris after projections of the election result showed her losing by 34.5 percent to Emmanuel Macron’s 65.5 percent. “I will therefore start the process of a deep transformation of our movement … I call upon all patriots to join us.”
How about “Republican?” Works here with the same agenda.
Booger
First?
How about “At Least we’re not Trump?”
Lurking Canadian
They could try not being a pack of rabid Nazi assholes, I suppose. That might work as a rebranding, although it would sort of defeat their raison d’etre.
dm
There’s already a French Republican Party. They (Francois Fillon) came in third in the first round.
Geoduck
It’s been pointed out they doubled their vote percentage from last time. Still, France manages to stave off disaster for another five or so years.
p.a.
how to translate “The Totally Not Putin Supported Party” into French?
PsiFighter37
Le Pen is synonymous with the FN. They would need to run someone with a different last name, under a new party banner.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Funny. My first thought was “nazi”. Maybe that’s too edgy for them, though.
? ?? Goku ? ?
Screenshot from r/the_donald on reddit: https://i.redd.it/iye9jmusb4wy.png
They’re losing their minds over the French election
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): National Socialist might work.
Brachiator
The 34.5 (or 34.9) percent won by Le Pen is a historic high, according to reports in The Guardian and elsewhere. Also,
Some French voters appear not to fear the rise of fascism, or stupidly hold out for something magically different, perhaps like Jill Stein supporters here.
And one of the most important things about Macron is the fact that he has not previously held any elective office. Perhaps in France, as in the US, the idea that people are fed up with the political mainstream, in addition to fear and rising racism, should tell politicians something.
But here is a question for those knowledgeable about the French political system. They are having legislative elections next month. What happens if Macron cannot win a parliamentary majority for his new En Marche! movement? Could Le Pen still cause mischief if she were to be able to successfully “re-brand” and normalize her party?
? ?? Goku ? ?
Also, too, from r/the_Donald: http://m.imgur.com/7FHotw8?r
? ?? Goku ? ?
Also too: http://m.imgur.com/7FHotw8?r
Gvg
Post cereal has reformulated Alphabits and I hate it. It tastes bad AND too sweet at the same time. I want to find the old kind and stock up. Yes I know, not exactly on topic. I am interested in the French election but don’t know enough to comment.
boatboy_srq
Wasn’t she just yesterday threatening violent civil disturbances if she lost? Now she’s “renewing” Front National? Really.
Peale
@PsiFighter37: that’s my thought. They aren’t just “the Nazis weren’t so bad if you weren’t a Jew, and even then, we probably had too many Jews then anyway and they had it coming, so forget about it and omg, have you seen those minerets…now that’s something to kvetch about”…no. They can’t just be that. They have to pass down the leadership in one family, like they’re royalists, too.
? ?? Goku ? ?
@Brachiator: Can’t help you about French politics, but I had it explained to me that this should be expected mostly because of the recent terror attacks and Le Pen presenting herself more moderately than her father ever did a decade ago
sukabi
@Lurking Canadian: “rebranding” isn’t about changing content, it’s about changing appearances…ie, “new and improved” usually means new packaging, new logo, ECT. plastered on a container that is a bit smaller with the same shitty contents inside and a higher price…
So look for Le Pens movement to be rebranded with a slightly less offensive name, it will be a smaller movement with the largest assholes still prominently in charge.
MazeDancer
Nouveau Nazi still Nazi
Mike in NC
American wingnuts love to go on about how Europe is being completely overrun by the dreaded Muslims. We’ve been to Europe three times since 2010 and you’d be hard pressed to see a single woman in a headscarf in any of the countries we visited.
ThresherK
@? ?? Goku ? ?: That imagefile had someone write the euphemism Rothschild puppet.
Don’t the MAGAcucks at Reddit realize that they can say “Jay owe owe”* in their little safe space now?
(*h/t South Park, in one of their better moments)
Mnemosyne
Imma let you finish, but first I’m going to point out that your ad server just gave us the Best. Ad. Ever. Perfectly targeted for Balloon-Juice.
And if you’re afraid to click on the link, don’t be — it’s from Best Friends Animal Society here in Los Angeles, and they have the best Cinco de Mayo-themed ad EVER.
patrick II
Since the category is “Assholes” and the topic rebranding, I will mention what I heard Rush Limbaugh say today. Limbaugh said that selling health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions isn’t actually “health insurance” at all since a company with a profit motive would not do so. Instead he said paying bills for people with pre-existing conditions was a type of welfare, a new entitlement and should not be a part of the new health care act.
If the profit motive exclusively defines the entire existence of everyone in this country it makes a skewed kind of sense, and is certainly the kind of argle bargle his audience buys, but it is hard to listen to because to them it makes sense.
Felonius Monk
Right-wing Nazi Assholes sound like it would be a good name . Certainly more accurate than Front National.
Brachiator
@boatboy_srq:
Kinda like Trump hinting at “2nd Amendment solutions” had he lost the presidential election.
The sad thing is, re-branding nonsense aside, the French were smart enough to reject their authoritarian fascist asswipe. Americans fell for the sucker bait, and now we have Trump.
Mnemosyne
@? ?? Goku ? ?:
Marine Le Pen also apparently talks about her Jewish boyfriend, which means that she can’t possibly be anti-Semitic, the same way that Trump can’t possibly be anti-Semitic because his son-in-law is Jewish.
Steve in the ATL
@Gvg:
Female Hitler lost, which is good.
Oedipus the Investment Banker won, which is not exactly good, but is much, much, much better than the alternative.
Sort of like having to choose between David Duke and Rahm Emmanuel. You don’t like your choice but it’s the right thing to do.
chris
Charlie Pierce has a standard line when talking about Republicans: “I so despair of the rebranding.”
Macron next week probably: “Je désespère autant du repiquage.”
ETA: Google translate, not me.
? ?? Goku ? ?
@sukabi:
Not an open thread, but it’s somewhat relevant. And no snark about the Republicans, even tho it is kind of true. What do BJers think a far-right/fascist American party would be called?
In a short story/novel I mentioned I’ve been thinking about writing, I thought of “Patriot’s Party” or “American Party for Unity and Justice” for the ruling party of what’s left of an authoritarian US in the late 21st/early 22nd century.
Trying to go for a dystopian sounding name and one that sounds American at the same time
Shalimar
Apparently “go choke to death on your own stupidity” violates Rawstory’s comment policy.
Felonius Monk
OT – Avik Roy is full of shit.
evodevo
Didn’t the repubs say this after 2012? Gee… and what happened next?
Calouste
@Brachiator: I don’t think Macron stands a chance of winning a majority in parliament, but it is not an uncommon situation in France to have the president and prime minister be from different parties. Le Pen only got 21% of the vote in the first round, and that probably won’t be much better for the parliamentary elections. And those elections are also in two rounds, and IIRC last time FN got something like 14% of the vote in the first round, and ended up with 0.3% I’d the seats after the second round.
Shalimar
@Steve in the ATL: The investment banker was also better than the far left candidate, which is the first time in my life I have ever said that. At this point, being in favor of withdrawal from the EU is a dealbreaker for me despite my general anti-capitalist philosophy.
ThresherK
@Steve in the ATL: I believe the Venture Bros. has already created the ultimate Le Pen nickname.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Wow, he must be one of those liberal, self-hating Jews I’ve heard so much about.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Things might be more … interesting… if Le Pen had a Muslim boyfriend.
Another Scott
@? ?? Goku ? ?: There’s already one – The Constitution Party.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steve in the ATL
@? ?? Goku ? ?:
You have been posting here too long to make such a ridiculous statement
JDM
I hear the time-tested political brand “Vichy” is available.
debbie
@sukabi:
Sounds like a great opportunity for Richard Spenser.
Montanareddog
How about renaming the party “Avenir Républicain, Souverrainiste et Egalitaire” – that would make an appropriate acronym
chris
@? ?? Goku ? ?: Borrow from the Brits, The Nasty Party.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Felonius Monk:
I’ll alert the media.
Chet Murthy
@Felonius Monk: AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Oh indeed he is! I remember right after Lord Smallgloves grabbed our country, poor Avik was crying, crying bitter tears over the pass to which *he*’d been brought. Crying that the Rs were (!!!) racists (maybe? maybe?)
But he still hasn’t given up on them. Like Peter Thiel, when Gilead rises, and they string him up, he’ll be screaming “but I helped pave the way for your rise! You can’t kill me!!! “
hovercraft
I guess when you get annihilated in every age group it’s time for some rebranding.
Macron won in every age group, according to Ipsos:
? ?? Goku ? ?
@Another Scott: True: but they’re too silly and ridiculous and the name already exists for an organization. If it was already being used, I would definitely use it. The irony would be sweet.
@Steve in the ATL:
So every thread is an open thread then? Whateves.
Steve in the ATL
@? ?? Goku ? ?:
Correct! It’s known as the Raven Rule.
Hal
In light of the vote in France, my all time favorite This American Life came to mind. Janet MacDonald, black, female lawyer, who moved to France in the 90s and her perspective on French culture and the differences between America and France when it comes to race. She struggled as a child of the NYC projects, and as an Ivy League student, trying to find her way in the world.
She’s not naive about European culture and race, but many years ago when I first listened to this podcast, Janet MacDonald’s enthusiasm and utter joy in her life in France were uplifting.
She died of cervical cancer in 2007, but I can only imagine she would be thrilled with the results of this election.
https://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/165/americans-in-paris?act=3
? ?? Goku ? ?
@Chet Murthy:
“But I was in the German Vanguard (Jews for Hitler, basc) you can’t gas me!”
People never learn: being the last Jew thrown in the oven is never an advantage
Shalimar
@? ?? Goku ? ?: The only tag was “Assholes”. That covers a lot of open ground.
Barbara
@? ?? Goku ? ?: “Rothschild puppet”? They are not subtle about their scapegoats.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL:
That and “Fuck LBJ”.
Baud
@hovercraft: Wow. Unlike here, old people in France did the right thing.
Brachiator
@Calouste:
I understand that Macron takes office on May 14 and gets to name his prime minister on or after May 15. But he could be forced to replace the PM with someone from the opposition party. The question is who will be the opposition party.
Also Macron barely has a party. He has said that he expects to field candidates, half women and half from civil society and local councils in France’s parliamentary constituencies. Apparently this means 577 candidates.
But again, and this is according to Guardian and BBC stories I have been reading, Macron is starting from scratch. This seems to make things a little different than prior elections. Also, at least as far as the presidential elections go, the voters dismissed the left and right political establishment. So, again, the big question is how this might impact the parliamentary elections.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Shalimar:
Well, it is a Cole thread.
Steeplejack (phone)
How about “Léopards mangent les visages des gens”?
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack (phone): waiting for Omnes to pick a nit with your French grammar….
amk
you mean like freedumb fries?
? ?? Goku ? ?
@Barbara: They’re absolutely insane there. It’s a neo-nazi breeding ground and the admins will not get rid of them probably because they drive traffic; they make Reddit money. The mods of the sub ban anyone even remotely critical of them or Trump. Total echo-chamber.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (phone): Je ne pensais pas qu’ils essayeraient de manger mon visage.
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku ? ?: They seem nice.
Caravelle
You’re joking but the mainstream right party already pulled that under Sarkozy (well, it was “The Republicans”). (those will definitely be changing their names after this too btw) (this isn’t info it’s a prediction)
So that one’s taken.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ou, peut etre:
Je ne pensais jamais qu’ils essayeraient de manger mon visage!
Tony J
@? ?? Goku ? ?:
One far-right knob of my acquaintance has named his idealised True-Conservative movement ‘The Eagle Party’. I think you can guess what the Party emblem looks like.
Or if you wanted to hit it hard on the nose go with something like The National Patriotic American Citizens Party.
To be honest you’re about three years and a narrowly failed impeachment away from the MAGA Party appearing on the ballot, nicknamed the Red Caps by their media supporters and the Brownpants by everyone else.
ThresherK
@Hal: I had not heard that piece. Good thing to bring up.
“They’re not scared of (black people) but they don’t hate you.”
I have it on the highest authority that all Undecided Moderates (Who always vote Republican) in this country are neither scared of African Americans, and also don’t hate them. They just have a litany of proofs on the tip of their tongue enumerating how white Americans are rarely racist and that calling someone racist is the real sin.
But seriously, Janet McDonald’s differentiating how white French treat black Americans differently from, say, Algerian immigrants (or descendants), is not lost on me, if only because I’ve heard it elsewhere.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Jamais works better; you are right.
hovercraft
@Felonius Monk:
It is never OT to point out that a supposedly “serious policy wonk” on that side is full of shit. While it may be a little like water is wet, it cannot be said enough.
I must point out that I had the misfortune of catching part of CNN’s coverage of the victory speech, and some moron had to hit Hillary because of course he did. Macron unlike Hillary had the grace and wisdom to say he respects his opponents voters, he did not do like the evil bitch and call them irredeemable and deplorable.
I hate these people, I really really hate them, flipped over to MSNBC and Tweety was bloviating about how Obama has his first opportunity to respond to Twitler calling him sick, he has to respond to Trumpmania and the insult. Why FFS is this man allowed out in public, let alone on TV?
? ?? Goku ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus: Yup. Doesn’t get much worse unless you go to 4chan’s /pol/ or Stormfront
Shalimar
@Tony J:
An eagle fucking a chicken?
Tony J
@Shalimar:
Ha! Totally should be.
hovercraft
@Steeplejack (phone):
They’d totally vote for them if the leopards promised to eat all the brow faces first, and be shocked when the realized that we brown and black people can run really fast, and they would actually be first in line!
Barbara
@JDM: The Collaborator Party, which has lots of on point historical and current allusions. There is a book by Alice Kaplan called “The Collaborator” about Robert Brasillach, a French writer who was executed for collaborating with the Germans. His collaboration consisted essentially of writing a lot of newspaper and other publications, and his treachery was from an ultra-conservative perspective that considered Hitler better than Communism. He also had a militant Catholic view of social relations and hated Jews (don’t they all?), as well as democracy. The author was the daughter of one of the lawyers at Nuremberg, who went on to do a PhD in French at Yale under none other than Paul De Man. She wrote a book called “French Lessons” that touched on that experience. The point, I guess, is that this streak in French culture that Le Pen has tapped into is not new. One of the better insights I read about its endurance was that France never really got over its defeat as a colonial power, especially in Algeria, and in some ways, people who hearken to the pure French civilization are like Southerners who still pine for the Lost Cause.
patrick II
@? ?? Goku ? ?:
America First party.
America for Americans Party
American Europeans party.
Traditional American Party
Ronald Reagan Party
Free Market Party
Libertarian Party
Jeffersonian Party
I’m not a writer so probably none of those work. The Jefferson one may seem out of place, but wrapping themselves in the slave-owning government minimalist Jefferson aura would be typical.
weaselone
@hovercraft:
It also puts her supposedly stronger performance with the youth in perspective. She didn’t perform as weakly there as she did with the 60+ voters, but they’re not her strongest cohorts.
hovercraft
@Baud:
I know, then again they had/have the clearest recollection of fascism.
Mnemosyne
@Hal:
I think she’s the woman I heard say that she had no problems in France while she still spoke French badly enough to be easily identified as an American. Once she got good enough to sound like someone from an African Francophone country, she started running into some prejudice until people realized she was American.
She felt a little guilty about having more privilege than other people with the same skin color, but there wasn’t a whole lot she could do about it.
ThresherK
@JDM: I got LePen’s Casablanca reference right here.
Caravelle
@Brachiator: Not anymore than she’s already doing and set to do I’d say. By which I mean, if dissolving and re-branding her party works I’d expect it to work on a longer timescale than one month (actually under two weeks since candidates have to be chosen by May 19th).
? ?? Goku ? ?
@Tony J: Would probably go with National Unity Party for Law and Order or American Law and Order Party. These authoritarian parties always tend to have the same kind of names. Poland has Law and Justice. Russia has United Russia. Words like Unity, Justice, Order, National show up a lot I’ve found
hovercraft
@weaselone:
It has to be framed as Macron won but these people must be listened to because they represent_______________ fill in the blank. Her voters were white Nationalists, so their voices are very important, Twitler’s voters had to be listened to is Hillary won because, but now our voices need to just stop and give him a chance, he won.
ThresherK
@? ?? Goku ? ?: You forgot LibertyIndependenceFreedonia, which are still available. Or, for fans of Million Dollar Legs, Klopstokia instead of Freedonia.
Hal
@ThresherK: One of the things I love about her story is her recognition of the differences in acceptance as a black American person, versus an African immigrant to France.
I immediately identified with so much of her story as a black, biracial man, growing up with mostly white people, some of whom were more than accepting as long as you fit the mold.
Steeplejack (phone)
@? ?? Goku ? ?, @Another Scott:
Or the “Federalist Party” might be a good name. Slightly more sinister than “Constitution.”
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack (phone): Federalist? No way, pinko–they are all about states’ rights!
And they don’t know, obviously, that states don’t have rights.
Calouste
I don’t think this rebranding exercise will be a success for Le Pen. Rebranding means admitting you did something wrong, and right-wing authoritarians see that as a sign of weakness, not as self-reflection. The space between her and the center is already occupied by quite a few well-known folks, so it’s not like she can gain a lot of votes there. And then of course there are the investigations…
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steve in the ATL:
I have pre-steeled myself. Plan to offer the “Google Translate” defense. It was upheld in Pimsleur v. Berlitz, I believe.
amk
@hovercraft:
Bingo. A 2 to 1 blowout win and yet concern trolls gotta concern troll.
? ?? Goku ? ?
@Steeplejack (phone): True. But in the US of my story, much of the history of America is censored. A white nationalist/fascist party would probably avoid references to something like the Federalists. As much as they were for strong central government, they still liked checks and balances, something a neo-fascist movement wouldn’t like
Jerry
“We’re going to smash the National Front…said we’re going to hunt the National Front” Almost 40 years later and, sadly, this Steel Pulse song is still relevant.
burnspbesq
@Gvg:
That really sucks. Is nothing sacred?
Hal
@Mnemosyne: Yes. There a section of the podcast where she talks about sounding more American with a shop keeper once she has a command of the French language, and how that person’s demeanor is so much more accepting.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Hal: Haven’t heard the story you folks are talking about, but a friend of ours who is a professor and fluent in French told a story about being given a verrry hard time on a train by French police who decided she must be francophone African. I think she wasn’t carrying her passport or something so she couldn’t convince them she was American.
I would think that her accent would be, if not strongly American, then certainly not African. But I guess those subtleties are lost on the gendarmes?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (phone): Rosetta v. Stone overturned that precedent.
Steeplejack (phone)
@ThresherK:
Link fail. Fix’d.
Always, always erase the http prefix that FYWP provides.
Sloane Ranger
@ThresherK: Said Rothchild puppet is also tool of Islamic terrorism. How does this work?
Or am I over thinking this?
smintheus
Here you go: “Ceci n’est pas un Front National”
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steve in the ATL:
In the sense of the Federalist Society. They say they’re for states’ rights, but they’re just authoritarian assholes.
burnspbesq
@Steve in the ATL:
You’re utterly wrong about Macron, but credit must be given for “Oedipus the Investment Banker.” That is quite good.
Lurking Canadian
@patrick II: in a sense, he is correct. Health insurance, as Americans understand it, is not “insurance” in the way that fire insurance, car insurance, life insurance, etc are insurance.
A traditional insurance policy is a bet. You go to the bookie and say “I bet I’ll die before I turn 60.” Bookie says “I’ll take that bet! Most people your age will not die until at least 72. In fact, I’m so confident of it that I’ll give you 1000:1 odds in your favour. You put $1000 in the pot each year. If you live, I get to keep the money. If you die, I’ll pay your heirs $1000000.”
Health insurance is not like that. An insulin-dependent diabetic is not a “risk” in any meaningful way. There is a 100% certainty that person needs insulin each day. No bookie would cover that bet.
As our Mr Anderson is at pains to explain, the system *as a whole* acts like an insurance policy, because the people setting the rates have to add up all the likely costs of all the people in the pool when setting rates, but from the customer’s perspective, it’s not “insurance”. It’s pooled-cost coverage, or something.
This is, of course, orthogonal to the question of whether a civilized nation should make sure each person has such coverage. On that point, Limbaugh is so very wrong that I don’t know the word.
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack (phone): good point. That’s also a great to identify the biggest assholes in law school–the federalist society roster. Much like one does in undergrad with the college republicans.
And even though the Republican Party was not yet fully insane when I was in college, the college republicans were still the biggest tools on campus. Even worse than the Phi Kaps, our rival lax fraternity.
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack (phone): I think to be most correct the phrasing would be “les leopards qui mange les visages…” but my French is quite rusty.
Kathleen
@Shalimar: An eagle wearing Depends.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: I can’t help myself: mangent instead of mange – leopards is plural.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: merde! I knew it was just a matter of time…
ETA: I blame my lack of wine consumption tonight. That always improves my French. Excuse me while I go improve my French!
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: FWIW, it would sound the same either way.
Millard Filmore
@Lurking Canadian:
Republicans want to turn health insurance into a bet “I bet I stay healthy until you are allowed to boot me off your insurance roll.”
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Heh, you hit on something that I always find funny on the French series Maigret. He will snap out an order on the phone to one of his minions to check out somebody, and he apparently never needs to spell the surname, even though it’s one of probably 15 that all sound the same.
Shalimar
@? ?? Goku ? ?: Lesson from David Barton: sometimes all you have to do to censor history is pretend historical figures believed exactly what you do. The Federalists believed whatever your future government teaches that they believed.
Brachiator
@Shalimar:
So true. And so-called “originalists” would have you believe that the founders were a unanimous hive mind. No Federalists and anti-Federalists. Oh, no.
J R in WV
@Barbara:
We were on a sailboat when the first Persian Gulf war actually started “Shock and Awe” style. The captain was a Bretton Frenchman, Soic, who was in the French army in Algeria, during the anti-colonist revolution. It was a very dirty war, as anyone who has read anything about it knows. (Francois Fanon, need I say more?)
My father was with us, the three of us (Mrs J and I and dad) and the crew, and my father was a Rockefeller Republican, anti segregation, socially very liberal. Soic was quite anti-Arab, no surprise once I had realized he fought in that particular war. He had brother-in-arms captured and – well, tortured to death, to be blunt. It was that kind of war. Maybe all of them are? “The Arabs, they are dogs!” he said bitterly,late one night, after we all listened to the news from Persia. Of course, the Persians aren’t Arabs at all, mostly. All the news was bad, so we stopped listening to the shortwave, mostly.
Anyway, your comment remarking on France and Algiers, reminded me of those nights, listening to Soic, translating Radio France, which was our only source of news, as it was Soic’s ship, and that was the shortwave station his radio received best. I like France, Haven’t spent much time there, though it was high quality time. But then I didn’t fight in Algiers, and don’t have those memories.
Those late nights give one quite a different and interesting perspective. And now the middle-east is all about shock and awe. And Trump is President ! OMG, WAallSF !!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Maybe that 35% was because the patriots were voting for the candidate who didn’t sell their country out just to win an election lady.
Captain C
@Shalimar: That’s the McConnell family crest.
Birthmarker
@Gvg: A
Major company reformulated a product I used regularly. I called and complained, and said it make my stomach hurt, which was true. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. Eventually they returned to the original recipe. Sales probably plummeted. Give them a call and complain.