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Macron ou Le Pen? A Little Experiment for People Who Can’t Understand Either One
If your French, like mine, is spotty-to-nonexistent, I invite you to take a little test. Listen to the victory speeches that both Macron and Le Pen delivered this very evening. Watch their body language. Look at their eyes. Gauge their energy levels and the sounds of their voices. Ignore what they say — again, if your French is as spotty as mine, that’ll be easy — to respond to each at the most basic human level: Who makes you feel more alive? Who looks more like a leader?
My answer? Easy. Le Pen–by a lot. I’d been assuming until now that all the polls showing Le Pen would lose the second and final round of voting, which will take place early next month, have been correct. Now I’m not so sure. Le Pen, it seems to me, simply connects.
Le Pen–that’s my answer. Yours?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkQXXfs5_Lo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkGfVEIXK0Q
Published in General
What if they hold an election and nobody comes?
(Sorry, I’m not in a place where I can conveniently watch videos. But I find it interesting to read the comments.)
Because she wasn’t 15. Didn’t we just have a nationwide manhunt here for a male teacher who ran off with his 15 year old female student?
Okay, so, without reading any of the other comments, here is my response:
Neither makes me feel more alive. One has more energy than the other, and seems to feed off the energy of the crowd. But no politician is going to make me feel more alive.
I can’t judge who looks more like a leader, as I cannot judge Le Pen in a vacuum.
I’m not sure this is a good way to judge a leader or a politician. Le Pen looks like what she is: an experienced pol and a populist. Of course she feeds of the energy of the crowd. That’s what populists do. That she excited the crowd, I do not necessarily consider to be a good thing.
Macron is less energetic and less experienced, but he seems more boring. That’s not necessarily bad. I kind of like politicians to be boring. They’re a lot less likely to become a caesar that way. I would rather have a president or a governor be as boring as the guy running for the water board. (I’d prefer a better communicator than the waterboard guy, but I’m okay with that level of excitement.)
See, if there’s one thing I took away from 2016, it’s I want politics to be boring. I am now perfectly okay with boring. What I learned is that in politics, the opposite of “boring” is not interesting. The opposite of “boring” is “terrifying.”
MLH,
…hmmm..was Melania 15 when Trump initiated the relationship? I don’t think the question pertains to the May-December age difference but to the question of an adult having sex with a minor. This is very creepy. If a male teacher had done the same thing with a female student he would be in jail.
Regards,
Jim
La Pen, but don’t go by me – I thought Rubio was the dynamic one!
The problem with LePen is not the Hitler in a dress fears of Claire and Zafar. LePen is much less likely to exterminate the French Jews than the Muslims who are rapidly changing France’s demographics (and culture), about which Macron will do nothing.
The problem with LePen is that she is a socialist that will drive the French economy even further into the ground.
I would say that I weep for the French, but I have never liked French culture anyway so … meh.
*Edited for grammar and culture
I’d bet it’s related to their territorial instincts. That’s really interesting.
I had a very sweet cat with a manic side, and the vet said it was his territorial instinct gone amok. So I started studying this to try to understand my cat. It is a powerful force in a cat.
I lived in a neighborhood at that time with a lot of small houses and outdoor-living cats. The cats had marked out a grid among the yards. It was hilarious.
Eek Gads!!! An aluminium bat!? My ears! My ears!
“You seem much more interested in the questions you are asking than in the answers I am giving. I find this disrespectful”
Outstanding. Better than Trump.
How do we get this lady on the ballot in Massachusetts?
Not just demographic — but culture.
This is what I don’t get — that some Jews feel more threatened by the potential of Le Pen than the actual Islamic supremacists invading the West, who Le Pen is determined to resist. I find it baffling.
That’s nothing compared to the sound you’ll make before the moose fixes it so you’re quiet.
WestC,
This is a good question. The history of the communists is complicit with the fascists. The current communist candidate does not support Israel and cares little about the threat of Islamic Jihadism. Marine has done her best to change the sordid past of her party under her father. If push were to come to shove over Israel I would trust Marine much much more than the communist. In fact, I would trust her more than Macron. The phone call from Obama is a complete deal killer for me with Macron. The last thing that I want is Obama’s foreign policy back. Macron will also only encourage the E.U. to continue on its arrogant path of not reforming its own illiberalism while threatening properly elected states, right now Poland & Hungary, with top down control.
Regards,
Jim
I have also found this baffling. The same thing goes for the reactions against Trump.
Le Pen by far.
Her message is ours.
I wish some of these paranoids would realize that the real rise of anti-semitism is on the left, and in the U.S. it’s in the Democrat Party. Wake up, people.
Well, I understand the paranoia. I just don’t understand the target of it. I hope I’m not out-of-bounds speculating this way — but, is there a difference between religious Jews and secular Jews? Have secular Jews been captured by the Left such that they only see (supposed) threats coming from the Right?
I mean, one would think the hostility of the Obama administration — the most left-wing in American history — toward Israel and Netanyahu, in particular, would give all self-identifying Jews pause when it comes to aligning with the Left.
Sorry, I was having a Steve Bannon moment. There are times when I can be mean before I get drunk.
Hear, hear! There are Jews leaving France over the Islamic influence to French culture and politics.
Weren’t they persecuted for failure/inability to integrate into the common culture?
France has the highest rate of Jewish emigration (4% — I just looked it up), but it is nowhere near the level of the first half of the 20th century (30%). I think it’s safe to say that growing antisemitism in Europe is a driver, but whether they sense it is coming from Muslim immigrants, the Left, or the Right isn’t readily known. I would attribute it to Islamic supremacists and the Left, but that’s just me.
I do not think so, as many German Jews identified as fully German first, and Jewish second, and were fully integrated into the life of the pre-Nazi nation. Once Hitler et al were in charge, I think the persecution was in furtherance of Hitler’s and the Reich’s insane goal to “purify” the blood of the German volk by eliminating the “other.” It was all laid out in detail in Mein Kampf. The fact that their wealth could also be stolen along the way was just a side benefit.
I think there are Members who might be able to help with your query, Chauvie… :-)
Right, that’s why I included “inability”.
Peter, You’re not following the AP/CNN Style Guide, which requires any reference to Marine Le Pen to include the words “far right.” So far as I can tell, “far right” is a French phrase which means “opposed to importing terrorists.”
Sisko was a boring pedant compared to Quark, the real star, the one who was the cultural glue for the “deep” station.
Yes, this is related to the odd love fest between Democratic party operatives and Islam. Both are far left and despite minor differences like killing homosexuals, they share a love of the State. That one is Administrative and the other Allah’s makes no never mind.
Dennis Prager cover this. They are allied against Americanism. Once that is dead, they will turn on each other.
Exactement!
Here is Steyn’s take:
Aaron,
The interesting thing about Steyn’s point on Macron not having a party is how you view him. He is touted as an outsider. However, if the establishment socialists knew they couldn’t win with any of their own candidates all they needed to do was dynamite, Fillon. Le Pen can’t win and when Macron wins they win. Macron has control of nothing and the old guard socialists have control of everything. Macron is the outsider who serves as the ultimate insider.
Too Machiavellian? Why can’t I spin wild theories too? C’mon give me a break, would you.
Regards,
Jim