Unfortunatly that seems to be the only option in oh so many elections these days…
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This is what they look like from my neck of the woods:
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Charlie Hebdo issued tracts with Marianne (the embodiment of the French Republic) stating “Better fucked by Chirac than raped by Le Pen!”
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The problem with Melenchon is that he’s all too anti-EU and pro-Putin, something which we really don’t need. And, IIRC, he’s way too positive about Venezuela’s utterly bankrupt (morally, intellectually, and fiscally) Chavezism, too.
Just being on the left does not mean your ideas are good and/or feasible, or your positions are tenable.
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We have the first turn to go by for estimations, which is way better than polls. The question is where the votes for the eliminated candidates will go. Breaking it down by candidate, even with a huge uncertainty and the abstention factor (I’ll be back to that), there’s hardly a credible scenario for Le Pen beating Macron.
Unless abstention is massive, which is a sad possibility. I don’t see the same mobilisation happening as in 2002 against Jean-Marie, for one thing. And unfortunately, the second turn is scheduled for the 7th of May, during a long weekend, the 8th being a holiday.
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I don’t think you quite understand. It’s now evident to me that if I deeply believe that there’s truly no way that the people could possibly elect “that person”, God hears me and punishes me for my arrogance.
In my home country, Trudeau only won because in my heart of hearts, I knew something terrible was going to happen and Harper was somehow going to be re-elected.
I’m trying to keep the race fair and the voters rational by being deeply suspicious of the fairness and rationality of the voters.
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Like the situation in Louisiana (which uses a similar two-round election system, though I don’t think it’s due to French influence) in 1991 when the notoriously corrupt Edwin Edwards faced neo-Nazi and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
Bumper stickers included “Vote For The Lizard, Not The Wizard” and “Vote For The Crook, It’s Important”.
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[quote=“LurksNoMore, post:44, topic:99663”]
The problem with Melenchon is that he’s all too anti-EU and pro-Putin, something which we really don’t need. And, IIRC, he’s way too positive about Venezuela’s utterly bankrupt (morally, intellectually, and fiscally) Chavezism, too.[/quote]
In the short-term, his problem is that he won’t join the coalition against fascism. If he doesn’t want to endorse Macron explicitly that’s his right, but that also obligates him to be the loudest voice of all the first-round candidates against Le Pen. If he doesn’t become that in the next couple of weeks I’d really start wondering if he’s afraid of alienating Uncle Vlad.
Now that most of the first round candidates and parties have recognised the urgency of the situation, they really have to convey it the electorate. They have to let them know that abstention and complacence are not acceptable. Right-wing authoritarians will always turn out when presented with a chance at power, so the opponents of fascism can’t just stay home.
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Well, mine was black, so no political messages on it.
A side note: It is our duty as people who speak German to supply this forum with a decent supply of overlong compound words. As “Federpennal” is way to short, I propose telling the English-speakers here that the proper German word for “pencil case” is “Antiatomproliferationspropagandaträger”, which after all translates nicely to “anti-atomic-proliferation propaganda carrier”.
My opinion on Chirac started improving in 2001, when he visited Bush just a week after 9/11 to express his support, but refused to buy into the hyperbolic “war on terror” rhetoric, and of course during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
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Brexit and Trump were both announced to me by my girlfriend on waking me up. From now on, I’m setting an alarm for before shegets up in the morning. I’m not having any more manky dead cats fished out of the box.
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They also don’t have an electoral college, so, whew there.
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A Japanese pen would have won outright; they’re so popular.
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In my little discussion group (with one expat french person to guide us) we noticed that in the election it was all of the -on (s) vs. the Pen. It was confusing with similar last names.
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Well, at least i have somebody to blame 45 on now. 
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Dammit, I didn’t notice that!
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Is there a French speaker put there who can tell me what “Pen” means in French? What is “le Pen?”
I think a closer analogy would be Ross Perot versus female Hitler.
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It doesn’t mean anything. Once when I was still getting the hang of things I accidentally called her “Le Plume”.
Also, you’ve just crushed several assumptions I might have held about you based on your username
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From now on, you may call me Le Grand.
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