Sarkozy: The French Revolutionary
As usual, the MSM (or “drive-by” media) is completely missing a huge political story that will probably shape our lives for a generation: The emergence of French President Nicolas Sarkozy as a conservative (in USA terms) revolutionary in Western Europe. For the first time in my lifetime, a French President is embracing American-inspired goals, dreams and freedoms long scoffed at by the socialist/neo-fascist French leaders of the past 40 years.
I am thrilled to see that the Roger Cohen at the New York Times (now totally free online!) has highlighted the Sarkozy Revolution in his column today, The French Revolution. (Note this is an opinion column, not news coverage that the Times should be doing on Sarko.)
The French Revolution of 2007 has not seen heads roll but has involved the destruction of 10 taboos as President Nicolas Sarkozy assumes the role of Europe’s most dynamic leader.
Enthusiasm for the United States was unacceptable for a French political leader because it was always interpreted as an embrace of “Wild West” capitalism, “Anglo-Saxon” hegemony and vulgarity. De rigueur attitudes held sway: patronizing contempt in Paris met macho derision in Washington. Communication suffered. Sarko’s New Hampshire vacation, enthused American dreaming, iPod-accompanied jogging and in-your-face style cleared the air.
To run France, you had to be cultured. Mitterrand’s bookish references and Delphic utterances (“A president must know how to be bored”) positioned him as too clever to contest. Chirac had a recherché passion for Japan. Culture — like cows but on a different level — connected the president to the Gallic eternal. Sarko, an American movie buff, is more at home with Johnny Hallyday than Jean-Paul Sartre.
Strong French ties and traditions in the Middle East dictated coolness toward Israel. Chirac let slip that an Iranian nuclear bomb might be acceptable, before saying he’d misspoken. Now Sarkozy, forthright in his support of Israel, declares that “an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran” may be the terrible choice looming; his foreign minister says the world should “prepare for the worst” in Iran, meaning war. Iran is no Arab country, but these utterances betray a changed politique Arabe.
Moscow was France’s offsetting power to the United States. For many cold-war years, the French left struggled to decide what was worse: Soviet totalitarianism or American imperialism. Some of the French right was undecided, too. Later, Chirac suggested “neo-liberalism” — unfettered market forces — was as much a danger in the 21st century as totalitarianism in the 20th. Weak-kneed moral equivalency often placed Paris in a halfway house between Washington and Moscow. Sarkozy is clear: American democracy beats Russian authoritarianism, just as U.S. freedom beat Soviet enslavement.
The bulk of this taboo-smashing is positive because it has stripped away paralyzing French hypocrisy, opened the way for unfettered French-American discussion and cleared a possible path to tackling chronic high unemployment.
Should Sarkozy’s success in knocking down French taboos continue, he may be the most important leader to emerge in World War III. If al-Qaeda’s success is as much propaganda and influencing Western politics as it is car bombs, I believe the Islamic terror movement suffered a serious blow with the election of Sarko. The French people had their choice between Ronald Reagan and Hillary Clinton in their last election….. they chose wisely, for once.
Could it be we have a French Margaret Thatcher in the making? I hope so.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
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The Wall Street Journal has a good editorial on Sarkozy today, as well.
Comment by Heliotrope — September 20, 2007 @ 10:12 am - September 20, 2007
Let’s hope. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like Sarkozy has gone much beyond the symbolic, yet.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — September 20, 2007 @ 10:25 am - September 20, 2007
OJ was just charged!
Is the case solid?
Was it a set-up?
He gets top billing even over Al Qaeda declaring “war” on Pakistan!
Who has time for France politics?
Further,
I doubt that you could label Sarkozy a conservative.
He appears to follow the Third Way philosophy.
Comment by gil — September 20, 2007 @ 10:30 am - September 20, 2007
[...] Original post by GayPatriot [...]
Pingback by Politics: 2008 HQ » Blog Archive » Sarkozy: The French Revolutionary — September 20, 2007 @ 11:35 am - September 20, 2007
We can hope for a French Margaret Thatcher, but we need to see Sarkozy under pressure before we can give him such high praise. Remember that when he was first elected, Jacques Chirac was also supposed to be a new, pro-American French leader. . .
Comment by Hubbard — September 20, 2007 @ 11:48 am - September 20, 2007
Things are beginning to look up in Europe with Sarkozy in France and Merkel in Germany. If only Berlosconi can return in Italy and the Partido Popular recapture Spain, wave of pro-American sentiment will sweep across the continent. Maybe Dubya will end his term in glory. He´s doing better than Congress, with their 11% approval they have to look up to see G.W. with his 34%.
Comment by Roberto — September 20, 2007 @ 11:54 am - September 20, 2007
Aside for gil – Hey, here’s a good listing of everything you’re still missing on the Scott Beauchamp matter – that is, everything The New Republic is still NOT telling you. Read it. Study it. Evaluate it logically. Repeat, until absorption of new information occurs.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — September 20, 2007 @ 12:28 pm - September 20, 2007
I’m not sure it’s fair to compare Hillary to Royal… Royal was definitely crazy and demagogue-ish in a way Clinton only ever flirts with.
Comment by DoDoGuRu — September 20, 2007 @ 3:46 pm - September 20, 2007
He gets top billing even over Al Qaeda declaring “war” on Pakistan!
By the same people desperately trying to bury Hillary’s money laundering service and as much as possible on Iraq.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — September 20, 2007 @ 4:12 pm - September 20, 2007
I doubt he’ll pan out to be a Tony Blair, much less a Margaret Thatcher… Still, I agree with your conclusions on his potential importance.
Comment by iamnot — September 20, 2007 @ 6:27 pm - September 20, 2007
“If al-Qaeda’s success is as much propaganda and influencing Western politics as it is car bombs, I believe the Islamic terror movement suffered a serious blow with the election of Sarko.”
Indeed. It was burning cars in St-Denis and other suburbs that in part elected Sarkozy.
France and the United States have so much in common, including mutual envy. But rather than a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude, I embrace the hope that he represents something we haven’t seen in France in a very, very long time: Courage.
Comment by HardHobbit — September 20, 2007 @ 8:41 pm - September 20, 2007
We are planning a European vacation for next year. Originally to skip Paris. But now that the French aren’t so anti USA, it looks like Paris then Italy. Funny how economics seems to be such a marvelous motivator of human beings. Unless you are a leftist. hehe
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — September 20, 2007 @ 9:38 pm - September 20, 2007
I noted as well the historic low ratings for the Democrat Congress. I thought the 11% might have beena misprint. GW Bush at triple the approval ratings of the Pelosi Reid cabal is great news. I heard an expert say today that the July August employment bad news was primarily due to the Democrat Congress raising the minimum wage at the end of July. The employment reports showed record low employment for teenagers afterwards. Humm guess start up jobs for non voting teenagers doesn’t matter to the Democrat Congress. Maybe it was the parents of those teenagers who answered the pollsters questions however. hehe
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — September 20, 2007 @ 9:44 pm - September 20, 2007
Humm guess start up jobs for non voting teenagers doesn’t matter to the Democrat Congress.
Nor is improving the lives of the “working poor” they pretend to give a damn about. However, what does matter is lubing up the labor unions for another go ’round.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — September 21, 2007 @ 3:17 am - September 21, 2007
I don’t know where you live but there’s a lot of reduction of labor forces here and none of these jobs are minimum wage. Far from it. This is a result of the mortgage crisis and not based on anything Congress has done lately. A recession is on the way and everyone knows it.
Comment by Houndentenor — September 27, 2007 @ 12:36 pm - September 27, 2007
Hi GayPatriot.Net,
Did you see that Nicolas Sarkozy’s rival may have supported independence for the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico at Harvard University (during her recent trip to the United States)?
Will you comment on that and the possible effect or connection it may have on the Democratic primaries scheduled for the island on June 1st, 2008?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9gol%C3%A8ne_Royal#Harvard_University:_S.C3.A9gol.C3.A8ne_Royal_supports_independence_for_Puerto_Rico
Comment by -P — March 18, 2008 @ 12:55 pm - March 18, 2008