Centrist Macron thrashes far-right Le Pen in French presidential election

boing
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Maybe we don’t. Sexism is very real in Europe–to different degrees in different countries but it’s real. On the other hand major European powers have had and have Women as leaders and their campaign was in no way accompanied by the kind of misogynistic vitriol and hatred Hillary Clinton had to put up with 2016.

Our political systems are fundamentally different from that of the US. You could say they have been cleansed by a devastating and brutal war. Most of us in Europe started with a clean slate in 1945. And this time around the electoral system worked (unlike the Constitutional mess we call Brexit)

So no, I don’t think this was about gender. Gender was a total side show–if anything it made Ms LePenn look slightly more palatable as a Nazi.

This Election was about Xenophobia and Racism, pure and simple. And for us in Europe there was more at stake than at any time any of us can remember!

French voters voted for a United Europe and that is a big deal on a continent that has been at war with itself for Millenia.

The current backdrop is that two of the major Imperialist Powers of Europe England and Russia seem to have decided that it would be a great idea to replay the 19th and 20th century. And French voters told them where to go.

This vote was a vote against Nationalism (and the French can do Nationalism as well as the next) This vote was a commitment to aligning the national interest with the interest of others. It was a rejection of the French version of America First.

The majority of the French electorate 53% (if we take account of the abstentions) voted for a United Europe that acknowledges the plight and the right of refugees. A Europe that recognises that it has a problem, a Europe that is willing to collaborate.

And you have to remember that 234 people were murdered in France by terrorists in the last 18 months. All the perpetrators were of Northern African origin. Can you imagine what the mood in the US would be if over a 1000 people were murdered by Muslim Terrorists? America Mega First anyone?

And another side note: in the UK 37% of the electorate voted for Brexit (the turnout was 72% lover than in France today) yet there is a rhetoric as if the other 35% didn’t even exist. Nigel Farage is peackocking around like he is the sun king accompanied by an ever obliging BBC. The conservative government is practically declaring war on Europe. because. based on the overwhelming mandate.

So if the bloody Brexit vote was overwhelming then the vote against the Fascist in France was double overwhelming. Let us acknowledge and celebrate that and then move on with the real work of trying to leave a better world to the next generation.

Sermon over.

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I think we are going to watch the Brits and Americans do it first. And then maybe think about it.

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I must admit to a gap in my knowledge on this. I presume this is related to Hugo Boss in some way, but I’ve not been able to find anything pertinent. Contextualize, please?

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Yet…

Do you think anything about politics is so reducible?

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Nothing ruins an otherwise majestic mountain summit like Peak Nazis.

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Sometimes, yes!

When politicians say that certain people don’t have a right to exist, that is such a time.

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I don’t see the UK trying to rebuild their empire like the Russians, it’s more like they’re doing the US racist isolationism between the wars.

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UK politics is super complex, but all the love-in with India and the Commonwealth who are “desperately” waiting for UK business certainly sounds like barking up some ancient yew tree holding on to Arthur’s sword…

I am trying to get my head around the unique English way of being at once an Isolationist and Imperialist–the trouble is, it is quickly loosing its English charm.

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Do you honestly think I’m sticking up for Le Pen here? That’s not what I’m attempting to accomplish here. It certainly helps that her views are rather repellent as a politician. But honestly, if we can agree that sexism is a real problem in (some parts) Europe as much as it is here in the States, we need to actually do the hard work of trying to understand this race and all aspects of it.

Let me turn the question around, and say do you think the outcome would have been different if the gendered roles had been reversed. Do you think that the people who would vote for the NF in general would be more or less sexist in their thinking? Maybe some percentage of the people who sat out the election would have voted for Le Pen if she’d been a man. Of course, we can’t know that until people start trying to figure out what did happen.

I think it’s quite true that women who run on right or right wing platforms often do well, often at the expense of women’s rights and respect. And often progressive men feel like they can smear these women because they are far right. It gives them permission to trash them in sexist ways, because of their politics. It doesn’t make it any less sexist of course and can be more easily covered up and ignored.

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Yes, I do. (But obviously this is an utterly unscientific guessing game)

For the rest of your response: I was trying to explain that European politics are very different from US politics and that it might be helpful to shift the perspective when looking at what has happened in France today.

The parallels are far weaker that the English language media and punters are making out. I really don’t know how to say this better, than I have said it in my pervious posts.

I want to celebrate tonight and I don’t want that celebration to be hijacked by what to me reads like an US-centric discussion. So I am going to leave it at that.

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Welp, sorry to rain on your parade.

I am happy about this outcome, BTW. I didn’t want to imply I wasn’t.

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Melenchon makes Bernie look like Reagan (he was in alliance with the French Communist Party). He would have been just as bad as Le Pen, for some different, but also some of the same, reasons (both anti-EU for example, both pro-Putin and anti-NATO). Sanders would probably have been closer to Benoit Hamon, though even then, Hamon is probably further to the left. Hamon told his supporters to vote for Macron, Melenchon told his to abstain or spoil their ballots.

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The good German tailors were mostly Jewish.

After the war, German suit manufacturers were forced to develop fusing (i.e. glued jacket interlining) technology because there was no one left to stitch proper canvas interlinings.

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D’oh! Somehow I never made the connection.

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May the Anarchists reign supreme, and ultimately topple Macron as they helped topple Le Pen.

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Yeah, apparently the 74% voter turnout was the lowest since 1969. In the US, that percentage turnout still would have made it the biggest since 1896, however… The US is so fucked.

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Choose their citizenship, and be barred from wearing religious iconography/clothing.

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I still support the ACA because it was the first meaningful step forward in healthcare since I was born, but yes without the public marketplace it is too conservative politically.

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Aha, understood. Starting to sound like Macron was the best option, quite honestly, from what little I know.

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I agree. And the reason for the failures is in large part because so many Republicans refused to play ball due to a fear of a black planet.

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