A Trip to France

I recently returned from a vacation in the south of France, easily one of the most beautiful regions on the planet.  Besides the markets and cafes, the sun and sea, the mountains and fields, the hilltop villages and historical cities, I got a brief glimpse of European politics. 

The French had just elected Socialist Francois Hollande as their President, rejecting the center-right politics of the previous President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and sending a resounding "no" to the rest of Europe on the austerity program favored by the current leaders of, for example, the UK and Germany - austerity measures that have not had any positive effect whatsoever on the economic recovery in Europe. 

As part of his campaign, Hollande also committed to an early withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan.  French troops will be leaving by the end of this year rather than next year as had been the plan under Sarkozy.  Would that our own President showed such wisdom.

Across the channel  in the UK, Labour picked up numerous seats in the May local council elections from the Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat allies.  Since their election to power in May 2010, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition has been hard at work cutting services, increasing tuitions,and generally screwing up the British economy in the name of deficiti reduction.  Voters across the UK gave them their preliminary report card on May 3.

Now a single national election in France and some local elections in the UK may not be a sign that the swing towards the right has finally reached its furthest point this cycle.  And it certainly will not have as big an impact here on the deficit reduction crowd that refuses to raise taxes on the wealthy or to cut bloated military spending.  Still it is a sign of hope that perhaps some countries will be taking steps that actually will help resolve the ongoing global economic crisis. 

Another interesting contrast with American politics was in the TV political advertising.  After the Presidential election is over and after the President announces his Cabinet, the French go to the polls to elect their legislature.  What I saw on TV was a brand of advertising very different from that in the US.  The candidates and parties actually talked about their policies in brief statements.  They talked about what they were for and what they would do.  There wasn't any haranguing and no sign of the negativity so common here in the US.  Who can ever forget the "swift boating" of John Kerry?  Hell, the 2004 US elections created a whole new word for slime ball politics.  (The French legislative elections are ongoing today and we'll need to see if a Legislature able to work with their new President will be elected.  I hope they've seen how useless a split government here has been the past year and a half.)

Anyway, it was a refreshing contrast to American politics.  2012 will have the honor of being the most expensive, least transparent and potentially most negative election in our history.  But first a shout out to SCOTUS for Citizens United.  This is perhaps the most undemocratic and embarassing decision ever rendered in what is supposed to be the world's leading democracy -  "corporations are persons; spending unlimited money is free speech".  Maybe the only way real election reform will happen in the US is if enough people get so disgusted with our current methods of politicking that we get a constitutional amendment to address the issue.  It will not happen in time for this election but maybe future generations will look back at Citizens United as the last straw in our trend toward creating an oligarchy.