Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 11:55am

France in Trumoil

 

I can’t help but notice that compared to many governing politicians in the West, Trump is not doing bad.  Trump has been often compared unfavorably to French President Macron, but it is Macron who is facing incipient revolt:

 

Are we going to see a French Trump? It’s one of the questions as the country is rocked to its foundations by riots that are said to be the worst since 1968. That was when leftist students tried to topple the Fifth Republic, which had been created and was then led by Charles de Gaulle. One could argue, though, that the current crisis in France is less predictable and more dangerous.

That’s our sense as the fires spread from the Champs Elysee and the government considers whether to declare a state of emergency. Not only have the fires spread, but protests featuring yellow-vested citizens irate over fuel taxes are now marked by black-masked mobs roaming the streets on more nihilistic missions. The riots could last beyond Christmas, and some are calling for revolution.

The reports are so dramatic that we put in a call to our erstwhile Paris correspondent, Michel Gurfinkiel, to see whether he thought a comparison could be drawn with the events 50 years ago. The more he spoke — in measured terms, as always — the more clear it became that today’s danger might be greater. Starting with the lack of the kind of strong leader that, in 1968, obtained in De Gaulle.

Go here to read the rest.  Trump is not my ideal as a President, not even close.  However, most of the resistance to Trump comes from people who want to maintain a status quo in the West that is beginning to come apart at the seams.  That is the true core of the so called Resistance to Trump.  Trump threatens the status quo, and people who have fattened off the status quo will crawl over ground glass to stop him.

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Howard
Howard
Sunday, December 2, AD 2018 3:08pm

The French always seem to be rioting about something. It seems to be part of their culture.

As for America, I am seriously concerned that when, inevitably, our combination of democracy with Constitutional restraint is finally dissolved (probably by a coup, possibly military but more likely bureaucratic), we will respond not with riots, much less civil war, but with angry Tweets, at least for the first week or two until everyone gets used to the new normal.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Monday, December 3, AD 2018 2:31am

Howard wrote, “probably by a coup, possibly military…”

As an old French diplomat remarked to me once, “There will never be a military coup in the United States. There is no American embassy in the United States.”

As for the comparison of the gilets jaunes with the Soixante-huitards, I belive a more apt comparison would be with the June days of 1848 – a more or less spontaneous uprising, without leaders or organisation. Then, the Assembly, one recalls, welcomed the surrender of the last barricade with cries of “Long Live the Republic!” What they got, inevitably, was Napoleon III; as Marx observed, history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, December 3, AD 2018 5:55am

As an old French diplomat remarked to me once, “There will never be a military coup in the United States. There is no American embassy in the United States.”

Now you’re recycling other people’s stupidities. No clue why the bill for the political dysfunctions of miscellaneous 3d world latrines gets sent to Washington, bar that the chattering classes in these countries cannot bear to acknowledge the agency of their own in making their world a disagreeable place to live. They could do themselves a favor by growing up. Same deal for the French, whose ruined political economy is a fine example of what happens when the political culture is characterized by collective borderline personality disorder.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, December 3, AD 2018 6:43am

The media only reports that which doesn’t reflect badly on their elitist, asinine agenda.

The French riots are in response to Macron’s onerous climate change/Paris Accords taxes.

Thank God in November 2016, sufficient numbers of US voters chose democracy, science, and their self-interest over elitist twits and their imbecilic, e.g., climate!!!, hoaxes.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, December 3, AD 2018 7:55am

The French riots are in response to Macron’s onerous climate change/Paris Accords taxes.

They’re not that onerous, just an irritant. Various attentive publics in France will go on a rampage whenever politicians or senior civil servants suggest they should bear the cost of something. The ratio of expenditure on transfers and collective consumption to gross domestic product is higher in France than in any other country in Europe this side of Greece. That means more public sector borrowing and more shell games with public accounting.

c matt
c matt
Wednesday, December 5, AD 2018 4:04pm

Are we going to see a French Trump?

Are they even capable of producing a French Trump?

No clue why the bill for the political dysfunctions of miscellaneous 3d world latrines gets sent to Washington,

Because we graciously barge our way in. You will have a difficult time finding another country that matches the world wide presence of the US. Whether we caused the latrine-ness of the place or not, we are there, ergo, we make a readily identifiable target to pick up the bill. A simple solution would be to just scale back our presence in such latrines, but for some reason, that approach is anathema.

c matt
c matt
Wednesday, December 5, AD 2018 4:07pm

The French always seem to be rioting about something. It seems to be part of their culture.

Read someone who described a Frenchman as an Italian in a bad mood.

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