Because Unrestrained Socialism Is A Fantastically Bad Idea

With a staggering 85% turnout at the polls, France has elected a slightly right-of-center president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

It's a clear victory for the general idea that cradle-to-grave socialism - combined with an immigration policy that amounts to helpless appeasement of ultra-extreme "multiculturalism" - might be a lousy idea in the long haul as a way to preserve the country the Frenchmen claim to adore. And according to the AP Sarkozy really won the deep demographics in this election - 49% of blue collar folks, and even 32% of the crowd that normally votes Green. Zut alors!

The French aren't stupid. Somewhere it must be clicking, somehow they must know - the combined picture simply cannot work: A thirty-five hour work week, in addition to workers "rights" that amount to the guarantee that nobody can be fired, in addition to astonishingly generous social programs - and a 10% unemployment rate - and even higher unemployment among the booming group of recent arrivals from fundamentalist countries who fully expect France to assimilate their values instead of the reverse.

Talk about unsustainability. (Hmm. Maybe that's what the Greens recognized.)

And as we contemplate that dizzying picture, let's not forget there are folks in the U.S. who would have us believe that anything less than a similar social arrangement in America is tantamount to oppressive fascism. They wrap in in the cloak of "Democracy Now!" - but it boils down to the same essential goals. And they - the same same group who promotes distorted notions of fairness and hearing "other voices" - will not refrain from calling you the worst kind of names if you don't agree.

But I digress.

Our once-and-a-while Gallic friends may have voted to acknowledge the problems, but it remains to be seen if they have the cheese necessary to make the appropriate changes. Prior to the election socialist Ségolene Royal predicted violent social unrest if Sarkozy won the presidency. Aside from the shameless fear-mongering, there may be some objective truth to this forecast. There appears to be a noisy layer of French society willing to take to the streets when their entitlements are threatened. In recent years it was young workers who were outraged at the possibility that they could be fired for poor performance. (Presumably they had to schedule their protest/riots on an evening when "youths" from North Africa and the Middle East didn't have any banlieue-burning planned.)


Mark Steyn takes this apart better than I possibly could - read the article. He also notes how market-friendly London is now home to an increasing large number of young Frenchmen and women (a population as high as half a million) - evidence that, although growth-minded French do exist, they may have already lit out for greener pastures.

Some cynicism seems warranted. But let's extend some credit too - and congratulations, for a once-great nation that has expressed an interest, with the most recent election, in pulling out of the downward spiral of moribund ultra-Leftism.

Tags: Sarkozy, French Election, Mark Steyn