Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Open Thread: Another French-Election Observer

Late Night Open Thread: Another French-Election Observer

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La théorie du fer à cheval est bien réelle!

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44Comments

  1. 1.

    Stuart Frasier

    Glem is stanning for people that would happily shove him into an oven, for more than one reason.

  2. 2.

    West of the Rockies

    Who actually admires GG?   Who is his readership?  He is sooo 2005.

    Weird how a guy who evidently wants to be regarded as thoughtful and honest and essentially “good” always, always is rooting for thugs and fascists.

  5. 5.

    piratedan

    @West of the Rockies: he’s emblematic of all of the bad faith, happy to take any statement out of context, but don’t you dare quote him verbatim because there’s no way that you can truly understand HIM.

    I wish he’d never been given a soapbox and I would just as soon give more power to the voices among those we feel need to be elevated.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    This post made me curious about the different promises of each candidate.  One interesting difference involves whether single women and lesbians are allowed to use in vitro fertilization.  Marcon supports it and Le Pen wants to ban it. (I get the impression that it is currently banned.)

    Platform comparisons here.

  7. 7.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    That was interesting.  They are both mildly pro-lower-taxes-on-businesses and strongly in favor of increasing social services for the poor.  It is very hard as a foreigner to know whose approach means more.  The big difference is Le Pen is wildly xenophobic and is running on “Only French people in France, and Islam equals terrorism.”  Neither seems to like Putin and Le Pen is more hawkish in general.

    EDIT – And for some reason Le Pen, otherwise fine with renewable energy, hates wind power.  Macron loves renewable energy, does not like nuclear.  I had no idea that France’s power grid is mostly nuclear.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    Another fun Le Pen promise

    Offer apprenticeships starting at 14 years old, to “make manual work attractive again”

  9. 9.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    This is under Le Pen’s foreign policy.

    • In favour of a rapprochement with Moscow
    • Increase French aid to Africa to 0.7 percent of GNP. Prioritise countries in the Sahel region
    • Withdraw from NATO’s integrated command
    • Oppose intervention in Syria
  11. 11.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    What?  I thought I saw the opposite on Russia and Syria.  Le Pen wants sanctions on Moscow until they abide by Minsk agreements, for example.  I don’t know which those are, but they’re not happening.

  12. 12.

    Lapassionara

    @Frankensteinbeck: when the Ukraine war started, Le Pen had to destroy a big batch of campaign materials that showed her with Putin. She and Macron are not the same on that issue.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    @Lapassionara: Macron had a positive surge in polling after Russia invaded Ukraine. That dissipated some, but he’s still probably on tbe more popular side when it comes to Russia. His 28% vote in the first round seems low, but I read that this is a strong number compared to other French elections this century.

    Macron would be the first French President to win reelection since Chirac did in 2002

  20. 20.

    Asparagus Aspersions

    @Frankensteinbeck: French resident here – actually Macron is in favor of nuclear; he announced a couple of months ago a “renaissance”  of French nuclear energy. This was in the context of “retaking control of our energy destiny,” in his words.

  22. 22.

    Asparagus Aspersions

    Macron got a bump in the polls in few weeks ago due to Russia invading Ukraine, but that quickly dissipated, and I think he badly miscalculated his political strategy. He didn’t officially announce that he was a candidate until about 4 weeks before the election, leaving him essentially no time to campaign. In the meantime, Le Pen has been busily criss-crossing the country, telling voters that she understands that they’re having problems making ends meet, that they’re concerned about gas prices, that they’re fatigued from two years of Covid (while conveniently leaving out all the scarier xenophobic and racist bits of her platform).

    Macron, who got elected by claiming space that stretched from center-left to center-right, tacked right not long after getting elected in 2017, and has been pandering to the right ever since. He gambled that if he leaned right, he could siphon voters from the traditional right-wing party, Les Republicains, while at the same time assuming that left-leaning voters wouldn’t abandon him when push came to shove because when pressed to choose between him and Le Pen, the left would choose to block the extreme right.

    This probably seemed like a great idea in theory. Adopt a right-leaning posture to attract voters that may have flirted with voting Le Pen, and assume that everyone else besides Le Pen supporters would back him when the time came.

    Well, we all know how much “in theory” gets you. In theory, bathing my cat was a great idea. After she’d levitated out of the tub, I had ample time to consider my folly while cleaning the blood off my arm.* And I very much fear that Macron is going to have time to consider his folly. Don’t get me wrong, he’s favored to win, but this is a TIGHT race, with a ton of competing elements. Many people who voted for Melenchon in the first round will simply sit out the second round. Is it rational to hand the country to Le Pen because you hate Macron? No. Can you rely on human beings being rational? Let’s just say that every night I promise myself this will be the night I don’t stay up too late, because I know I’ll be tired the next day. And I am tired. Because I go to bed too late, always. Because (and this is very important) human behavior is not rational.

    TLDR: Macron’s 2022 campaign was non-existent, his political decisions only make sense if you’re trying to appeal to an electorate composed entirely of algorithms, and I’m going to be EXTREMELY tense on election day.

    *I was 10, so obviously not smart enough yet to realize that trying to bathe my cat was a death wish

  23. 23.

    Asparagus Aspersions

    @debbie: I agree. Sadly people seem to be comparing her to Zemmour, and she has made a real effort to soften her edges and hide her radicalism. Like when she did an interview featuring her and her cats, and talked about how if she were president, they’d come with her to the Elysee. She can’t be a monster! She loves cats!

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @Asparagus Aspersions: 

    He gambled that if he leaned right, he could siphon voters from the traditional right-wing party, Les Republicains, while at the same time assuming that left-leaning voters wouldn’t abandon him when push came to shove because when pressed to choose between him and Le Pen, the left would choose to block the extreme right.

    In America, the left doesn’t even back you when you move left.

    Good luck. We’re all counting on you.

  25. 25.

    SFAW

    Here’s an interesting topic for debate:

    Was the worst result of Edward Snowden’s actions that he (indirectly) released Glemmy on the USA/world?

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Hard to believe that so many would fall for Le Pen’s “moderation.”

    “Marine la colombe, Emmanuel le faucon“?

  32. 32.

    Asparagus Aspersions

    @Baud: Thank you! I live in France but my last US residence was Arizona, which I’m represented by Senator Manic Dream Pixie Girl. So I’m pretty accustomed to being let down by people who purport to represent the left.

  34. 34.

    taumaturgo

    @Baud: In America, the left doesn’t even back you when you move left.

    Really? I remember Biden’s BBB was torpedoed by the corporate centrist democrats and defended ferociously by the despised left. The reason why the Le Pen party has steadily grown since its inception in the 70s while the centrist pretenders to be liberals have declined is because the so-called liberal party leaders have abandoned progressive ideas to pander to the growing right.  It is happening all over Europe and the same phenomenon is happening in our backyards; the right is stealing progressive ideas that resonate with working folks.

  36. 36.

    TM

    @taumaturgo: “the so-called liberal party leaders have abandoned progressive ideas to pander to the growing right.”  This is especially true on economic policy.  When Clinton said “the era of big govt” is over, he was basically surrendering to “govt isn’t the solution govt is the problem” Reaganism.  In short, embracing historic levels of economic inequality as immutable natural features of the universe.  And this has predictably opened the door to fascists who say the immigrants, or the browns, or the gays, or the Ukrainians, are the reason things are so screwed up.

    Glenzilla is a parody of his former self, and deserves all the dunking on he’s getting. But even a stopped clock etc.  I see no other reason to defend Macron’s economic “centrism” than unquestioned loyalty to neoliberal ideology. Of course I think LePen’s election would be a catastrophe.  But if she does win Macron’s economic “centrism” will be one of the reasons.

  37. 37.

    daveNYC

    Biden, for all his faults, is governing as though he owes his election and possible re-election to voters on the left.  BBB didn’t pass, but he did give it a good try, and he has done other stuff to try and keep those voters.

    Macron got in office and acted as though everyone who voted for him supported his policies, as opposed to not wanting a fascist in office.  “I’ll screw you, but at least I’m not a fascist.” isn’t the ideal campaign platform.

  38. 38.

    Llelldorin

    @TM: Glenzilla is a parody of his former self

    What former self? I remember getting really irritated with him during the Bush administration because he kept constructing elaborate denunciations of Bush that collapsed under the slightest scrutiny, at a time when Bush was doing five horrible things before breakfast.  He was fantastic at constructing clickbait, but basically useless as a Bush critic.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    @TM: 

    When Clinton said “the era of big govt” is over, he was basically surrendering to “govt isn’t the solution govt is the problem” Reaganism.  In short, embracing historic levels of economic inequality as immutable natural features of the universe.  And this has predictably opened the door to fascists who say the immigrants, or the browns, or the gays, or the Ukrainians, are the reason things are so screwed up.

    That’s the most ambitious use of the “only Dems have agency” principle I’ve seen in a while.

  40. 40.

    Hob

    @TM: “‘the so-called liberal party leaders have abandoned progressive ideas to pander to the growing right.”’ This is especially true on economic policy.  When Clinton said …”

    Thanks for a great illustration of how the simple perfect tense (“have abandoned”) can be used to misconstrue, by evading relevant questions like “Did they abandon it for good? Is this a still ongoing process? Or is this yet another installment of ‘Let’s pretend it’s still the ’90s and Bill Clinton is the leader of the Democratic Party’?”

  41. 41.

    TM

    @Llelldorin: What former self?

    It’s been a long time, but way back in Iraq war days I remember him attacking numerous Bush lies, and even better, the smug “centrist” consensus that swallowed those lies whole. For a while he actually was “Glenzilla.” Then he went full upside-down American exceptionalism, where we were the source of all global evil and the only nation with agency, and then even more weirdly he decided that Hillary and the Ds were the root of all evil.

  42. 42.

    TM

    @Hob: “Did they abandon it for good?” I think Obama followed squarely in Clinton’s footsteps, and Hillary (duh) was taking the same route in 2016. Biden tried to pick up economic liberalism, to his credit, only to be swatted aside by a single D Senator?  Discuss.

    So “is this still an ongoing process?” Sure. Not looking great right now.  Maybe the Ukraine war will jar the nickel loose more broadly on the evils of economic inequality and how they form the seedbed of fascism.

    “Bill Clinton is the leader of the Democratic party.” The Clinton third way endured through 2016 (see above), and the larger idea that “market-oriented solutions” are the best way to formulate policy of all sorts is still basically consensus, or at least “centrist” consensus.

     

    @Hob:

  43. 43.

    TM

    @Baud: the “only Dems have agency”

    Honestly pleading dullness here–I don’t see what you mean.

    Fwiw, I don’t believe only Ds have agency. The GOP is  going nuts with its agency, writing trillion-dollar checks to millionaires, using the state to attack teachers, and to sic their neighbors on pregnant women etc.  I would say that on economic policy mainstream Ds believe they have less agency than they do, because of their belief in the so-called laws of the so-called free market.

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