GOP Implosion (continued)

After 2004, 2008, and 2012*, I have to post a blogule about the implosion of The Republican Party on an election year. This time, I come after all mainstream media, who've been paying more attention since Donald Trump pushed the tragicomedy to new levels.

Each election cycle adds a nuttier flavor of the month to the old Paleocon-Theocon fault line highlighted by the election** of George W. Bush in 2004: first came the Neocons, then Tea Party ayatollahs, and now Donald Trump is single-(short)handedly shifting the rift below the (Bible) Belt.

As I wrote before, the GOP is a bit like France's Socialist Party: it refuses to reform itself, and to dump for good its most radical elements, but keeps winning every now and then, which only further delays reforms demanded by this millenium.

Decent leaders fail to emerge. We even saw John McCain sell his soul to creationists and theocons to win the primaries, and Chris Christie, after proving he could be a bully (see "a bridge to you know where"), turning into a shameless political whore by endorsing Mr. T moments after quitting the race. Even Mitt women-in-binders Romney sounds decent compared to what we have now.

Marco Rubio failed to seize a once in a lifetime opportunity against a dangerous fascist (Trump), a dangerous theocrat (Ted Cruz), and a harmless paleocon (John Kasich). Jeb Bush*** wouldn't help him save Florida, where Hurricane Donald seems about to touch down.

I truly believed Mike Bloomberg would go for it, but he joebidened out of the race before even starting it.

Will the GOP chose its soul over victory, and moderates lead a revolution at the RNC? Should Trump be confirmed, whom will he face? Hillary Clinton seems as good at screwing up campaigns as Republicans are bad at cleaning up their own mess, and Michigan landed on Bernie Sanders' lap. I'm not sure America would prefer a self proclaimed socialist to a fascist.

This party and this World deserves better leaders.

USA must chose between her own soul and Donald Trump (a Mussolini wannabe endorsed by the KKK and  Jean-Marie Le Pen**** (20160304 twitter.com/stephanemot/status/705509307673083904)

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* ICYMI "Grand Old Parting: fix your party before causing more damage to your country" (2012), "GOP : Time to Split" (2008), "Red Blogule to the Bush system - Prevent a New War of Secession" (2004)

** as usual I don't say "reelected", since W was handed the job by Jeb in 2000 (btw Florida's likely to play a key role this year as well).

*** as pathetic as expected  ("Jeb? A World Leader? Not kidding anyone anymore")

**** Jean-Marie Le Pen was bound to support Trump, they look and think like twins (see "Trump Parliament")

Francois Hollande vs Extreme Right? Been There, Done Nothing

France's extreme right party Front National claimed almost 25% of the votes at the European election, finishing for the first time as the first party in the country, four points ahead of the UMP. The ruling Socialist Party didn't even reach 14%.


French PM Manuel Valls described the results as an "earthquake". They're even worse than 12 years ago, when Jean-Marie Le Pen finished second at the first round of the Presidential Elections, kicking socialist PM Lionel Jospin out of the race for less than 200,000 ballots. Jacques Chirac went on to win the second round, but a few months later his gaullist, conservative RPR merged into the new center-right UMP. Surprisingly, the humiliated PS refused to reform, and it had something to do with the "leadership" of its First Secretary Francois Hollande, a person who loves to talk about change, but has never done anything to prove it.

When Hollande got elected in 2012, I wrote "France refuses to change" because there was no better way to sum it up. The scariest thing is not the earthquake, but the desperate flatness of French democracy's EEG.

Francois Hollande vs Extreme Right? Been There, Done Nothing
2002 Presidential Elections in France: Le Pen reaches 2nd round
2014 European Elections in France: Front National the 1st political party
Francois Hollande 1998-2008: First Secretary of the French Socialist Party
Francois Hollande 2012-2017: President of the French Republic
2002: Gaullist, conservative RPR merges into new center-right party UMP
2014: UMP evolves into???

When democracy stalls, extremes always win. And the FN didn't even have to modify its DNA to win: Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed one region, his daugther Marine another, and Marine's mate Louis Aliot yet another.

The only good news may be the fact that the UMP is at long last forced to dump Sarkozy's doomed "rightization" strategy. In the weeks and months to come, the party will either evolve towards the center, or implode. 

The Socialist Party imploded a long time ago, but managed to win an election here and there, when its rivals played it even dumber than dumb. France cannot afford two zombies any longer.

• Also on blogules V.F.: "Séisme ou Encéphalo Plat?"

blogules 2014
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Europe's extreme right leaders expose Japanese counterparts

My first reaction when I saw Jean-Marie Le Pen and fellow fascists visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine on every international media was to hope this would wake up the Japanese people : these guy are the shame and the scum of Europe, and they've been invited by your own fascist leaders. Would you still support a Japanese minister who visits this infamous shrine ?

Naoto Kan, the new P.M., officially stated that he would never do it*, and Japanese extreme-right leaders made the mistake of exposing their own stupidity through this miserable PR event. They proved they existed and had friends at the global level, but they also revealed their true nature to the Japanese public : not "nationalists", but die-hard fascist revisionists who are betraying their own people.

The question is : will the Japanese people keep allowing those thugs to decide who can be Prime Minister and what should be written in history textbooks ?

blogules 2010 - see also in VF ("L'extreme-droite Japonaise invite Le Pen... et les projecteurs")

* Well. Hatoyama started well too, but eventually gave in to the extremist minority that has been plaguing Japanese politics since WWII : "Hatoyama's Christmas gift to Japanese extreme right"

GOP meets Poujadism

When Karl Rove says the Tea Party should keep distances from the GOP*, what he actually means is that the GOP should stay away from this political dead end.

But if the Architect knows a few things about winning and losing elections, I don't think he is familiar with French Poujadism, the movement which inevitably comes up to my troubled French mind each time I hear about this laughingstock of a Tea Party.

During the early 1950s, Shop owner Pierre Poujade defied the French tax system and founded a party that surfed on a collapsed political system to claim 400,000 members and more than 50 seats in the National Assembly... where the absence of program of the movement became an embarassment for everyone. Charles de Gaulle's comeback put an end to the doomed IVth Republic, and Poujade's Union de Defense des Commercants et des Artisans left for ever the political centerstage.

Pathetic indeed. But one can worry a bit more about what could happen in a country where a certain Joseph Stack III just crashed his plane on an I.R.S. building in Austin, TX**... Furthermore, among UDCA's law"makers" was Jean-Marie Le Pen, who later founded the extreme right party Front National... I wouldn't be surprised to find this kind of "great democrats" within the Tea Party's dream team.

Hardcore taxophobes are not comfortable with the very concept of a state, and such platforms never bloom in healthy democracies because they are, fundamentally, anti-democracy.

Populism and tax breaks sell well in the short term, but only simple minds stick to it whatever happens. For instance : the same voters who followed G. W. Bush on that path are now mad at Obama because he doesn't know how to reduce Dubya's abyssal deficits with more tax reductions.

Unlike Poujadism, the Tea Party is purely grassroot and lacks a leader. Ron Paul might fit the job, but Sarah Palin proposed to take the helm at the inaugural National Convention in Nashville, TN, reading from her Palm Pilot (actually a low tech model counterfeited by John McCain). Sarah Tea Party Palin... what a match.

We already saw how Palin represented the no-future of the GOP ("Sarah Palin and the Segolene Royal Syndrome - The GOP on the same path as the French Socialist Party"). So a Tea Party Spin Off with Mrs Theocon on board would definitely leave some space for Republicans who actually respect the republic (see "GOP : time to split").

Anyway, instead of following the ones who yell and destroy, GOP leaders would better sit down and think. Even if it means losing the upcoming elections - actually, THAT could come as a blessing : they decently cannot postpone their own reforms any longer.

But Democrats shouldn't rejoice too soon : if the popular success of the Tea Party unmistakably corroborates the ideological collapse of the GOP, it also is a gorilla-sized canary in their own coalmine. And they must prevent the most liberal aisles to stretch beyond the limits of the republic. Obama took the blame and seems to be correcting communication to restore some of the truth : OK, I didn't deliver the goods, but I had a few bads to take care of first.

blogules 2010

* "Where the Tea Parties Should Go From Here" (WSJ 20100219)
** At least, a political crash of the GOP wouldn't cause much damage.

Sarko wins - White blogule to reforms

France eventually said yes to something. After saying no to extreme right in 2002 and no to Europe in 2005, the country decided to embrace reforms. In order to implement his ambitious program, Nicolas Sarkozy must now get a clear majority at the National Assembly. And these legislative elections will be a very interesting moment in French politics.
As early as next thursday, Francois Bayrou will know whether his new Democratic Movement can keep the bulk of today's UDF MPs, who supported Sarkozy and refused to join the opposition.
As early as yesterday night, a surrealistic replay of the PS primaries started. Segolene Royal, as expected, refused to admit her own failure and the failure of ideological indecisiveness, claimed the leadership of the "anything but Sarko" movement. Laurent Fabius, as expected, denounced her solo campaign and called for unity with the left of the left. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, as expected, denounced the candidate's hollowness and the party's refusal to reform itself, to clarify its vision and ideology, calling for a reform towards a modern social democracy.
As early as yesterday night too, extreme left revolutionary groups tested the authorities, provoking minor episodes of violence in some major cities. Olivier Besancenot intends to take the street and bar all reforms.
As early as yesterday afternoon, Jean-Marie Le Pen died politically. Sarkozy shot him badly before the first round, leading a great chunk of his voters back to the republic, and the old extremist leader shot himself before the second round, calling his voters for a massive abstention but witnessing the highest turnout in recent history.
Meanwhile, Sarko rises above the snake nest and takes a few days off to abandon his candidate's skin. He already switched to a presidential posture in a rather brilliant speech. He talked to the world (to the notable exceptions of the Middle East and Asia) and mentioned respect. I'll keep an eye on his way of respecting the separation of powers (executive-legislative, executive-judicial, executive-media, temporal-intemporal...).

Red blogule to Prince Harry - When Harry met nazis

First time I saw the picture of Di's kid with that swastika armband I thought it was a fake (sweet Harry turning into "brown sugar" ?). About the same day Di Canio performed a "perfect" fascist salute to the Lazio fans. And then came Jean-Marie Le Pen's latest provocation. Already controversial public figures in unison. A pattern. Extremes on the rise across Europe and the World. Fundamentalist Christians and Muslims competing in a sick draft over Aceh's ruins. Wrong start for 2005. No wonder : last year ended with a wrong message from the US. Stephane MOT