Sarkozy Discovers His Open Right Flank

Posted on | April 23, 2012 | 25 Comments

Because it is my habit to ignore smelly foreigners (and let’s face it, they all stink), I pay little heed to the troubles of French politicians.

Nevertheless, Nicholas Sarkozy is the most pro-American French politician since . . . Well, he’s pro-American, and so his difficulties are kind of relevant. In order to retain power, Sarkozy finds himself forced to reach out to Le Front National, whom the press generally describe as “far right” or even “fringe.”

Can we be brutally honest here? Your typical Republican voter in Iowa or Alabama would probably qualify as “far right” or “fringe” by the descriptive standards the media applies to any European who is anywhere rightward of the most tame British Tory.

Hell’s bells, it would probably be illegal for any French newspaper to publish a Michelle Malkin or Charles Krauthammer column.

The history of European nationalism is such a heavy burden that anyone in Europe who criticizes the EU or complains about immigration or multiculturalism tends to get instantly classified as a dangerous extremist, so that mainstream “conservative” parties in Europe won’t even go near such issues. Thus, we see the persistence of “far right” parties with disreputable associations, parties that might dwindle in significance if “conservative” parties weren’t such scaredy-cats.

We in America are used to the two-party system, which tends to channel any genuinely widespread sentiment into one or the other of the major parties. Some Republicans, alas, have the same scaredy-cat impulses as European “conservatives,” so that if it were up to such pantywaists, the GOP would be as liberal on immigration as the Democrats.

If a pro-American French politician has to make a deal with the “far right” in order to keep the American-hating socialists out of power, this is perhaps in some sense unfortunate, but let’s not pretend that this makes Sarkozy a crypto-Nazi. I’m noticing that the Memeorandum thread doesn’t show any conservative bloggers offering comments, so I guess the liberals are having fits of hysteria.

Good. Liberal hysteria makes me smile.

Here’s something else to get hysterical about: Rape.

We assume that liberals are still against rape, OK? Rape, sexism, misogyny — are our liberal friends ready to denounce it?

A group of Muslim men who abducted and raped two teenage girls as part of their Eid celebrations laughed in court yesterday as they were jailed for a total of 38 years.
The girls, aged 15 and 16, were lured miles from their home to a dingy hostel.
In a horrifying weekend-long ordeal, they were plied with alcohol and repeatedly raped by two men, Shamrez Rashid and Amar Hussain, before being offered to a number of others who also ‘used them for sex’. . . .
One defendant, Rashid, 20, was said to have claimed the girls had enjoyed the sex, which he said had taken place as they celebrated the Muslim festival of Eid. . . .
‘They could have anything they wanted. They enjoyed it.’
His accomplice Amar Hussain, 22, claimed the girls were ‘slags’.

You might be a right-wing extremist if . . . you think Rashid and Hussain represent an argument for stricter immigration policies.

(Hat-tip: Bare Naked Islam via Mark Taylor on Twitter.)

Category: Crime, Europe, France, Great Britain, Immigration

Comments

25 Responses to “Sarkozy Discovers His Open Right Flank”

richard mcenroe
April 23rd, 2012 @ 4:05 pm

I think they represent an argument forTexas-style “the man needed killing” legislation.

Of course, if that’s ever passed, I’ll either have to learn to handload or shorten my list. Volume, volume, volume…
richard mcenroe
April 23rd, 2012 @ 4:13 pm

“Because it is my habit to ignore smelly foreigners (and let’s face it, they all stink)…” This is no way to talk about New Jerseyites. And to be honest it’s only les Canadiens Quebecois that announce themselves downwind. Many of the rest smell pretty much like actual white people.
Adobe_Walls
April 23rd, 2012 @ 4:40 pm

One of the rudest people I ever met (rude to one of my kids not me) was a Canadian from Quebec who insisted he was French. While he was as rude and obnoxious as a Frenchie he had none of their “salve wa phair”.
ThePaganTemple
April 23rd, 2012 @ 5:01 pm

Yep. Our allies.
Bob Belvedere
April 23rd, 2012 @ 5:01 pm

How soon before the Muslim Rape Gangs that plague Britian show up here?
ThePaganTemple
April 23rd, 2012 @ 5:18 pm

About ten minutes after Britain demands we take about half of them on humanitarian grounds.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 23rd, 2012 @ 5:29 pm

Ask people in France is Quebecois are French. They will laugh.

And here is a video for a different kind of stinky foreigner…
SDN
April 23rd, 2012 @ 5:29 pm

Bob, they already have. See Dearborn MI, or just Google up “honor killing USA”.
Adjoran
April 23rd, 2012 @ 5:59 pm

The Euro=peons aren’t so much afraid of “nationalism” itself. The EU was formed for two reasons: 1) they expected it would somehow increase their economic power and political influence in the world, and 2) Germany scares the bejesus out of the rest of Europe, so they hoped to co-opt it: “If we join them, they can’t beat us anymore.”

The welfare states have progressed so far in Europe that there is little chance a true conservative or even a center-right party in the American sense of ideology could ever compete. We are almost at the tipping point even here.

The only hope Europe has is for the weaker EU states to begin peeling off as the required bailouts become too much for Germany and France to tolerate, which will bring down the whole charade. Then, in the process of picking the pieces of their broken luck, they might be able to “experiment” with markets again.

The only real accomplishment of the whole EU experiment is making the Belgians feel important.
Pathfinder's wife
April 23rd, 2012 @ 6:12 pm

too late — the organized crime element within the Somali community is particularly bad on this account
Adobe_Walls
April 23rd, 2012 @ 6:19 pm

The Belgians have always been important, their nation is known affectionately to the Germans as “the gateway to France” and to the French as “the gateway to Germany”. Their problem has always been that they didn’t know how to exploit that asset. Rather than setup “frontier defenses” they should have set up toll booths.
Pathfinder's wife
April 23rd, 2012 @ 6:23 pm

The problem is: the “extreme rightwing” of Europe does contain some really unsavory types (and so does their leftwing too).

They are horrible racists, bigots (both their right and left and all points inbetween), and general all around provincial troglodytes who still fantasize about the days of empire and conquest — and none of them are our “friends”, that includes Sarkozy (whenever any European politico of the “right” gets in trouble, it’s always good for Americans to repeat that — none of these people are our friends, none). Their stupid EU was an effort to not just get on equal terms with America, but to supersede her.
They have always, always hated and felt superior to the countries of the western hemisphere and especially the U.S. (for obvious reasons). America especially can trust none of them.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 23rd, 2012 @ 6:25 pm

Correct!
Adobe_Walls
April 23rd, 2012 @ 7:21 pm

I believe they actually thought they were taking the lessons from our federal system. The euroweenies can’t seem to grasp that Europe is merely geography not culture. The French will never be as similar to Germans as Mississippians are to Mainians (?). Of course the Belgians are most similar to either the French or the Germans depending on whether the southern or western toll booths are doing the most business.
JeffS
April 23rd, 2012 @ 7:45 pm

Let’s not forget Belgian waffles!
JeffS
April 23rd, 2012 @ 8:01 pm

I think that both of you have parts of this right.

Europe has always been competing on a “me versus you” basis, even with the EU in place. They may eschew “nationalism” or “jingoism”, but nearly all of their problems seem to center on some form of tribalism. Tribalism has much in common with racism (if not actually the same), but can be much more subtle. In that sense, a European nation is a “tribe of tribes”, the larger ones having more tribes. Or, if you like, a bunch of cultures plopped down on one continent.

(Yes, I am assuming “culture” = “tribe”. Tribal leaders need not wear a head dress.)

For example, note that European countries have a real problem integrating immigrants into their populations. There are higher legal and cultural barriers than here in the US. Those immigrants, many of whom come from countries with active tribalism, start re-forming their tribes on European soil. Which goes without much opposition from the native Euroweenies. In part, because of the restrictive EU and national laws, but in part because they expect to see tribal behavior.

The EU, in effect, is a “federation of tribes”, and it ain’t working because they took the moral high road, and formed yet another tribe to run the joint. One that is not accountable for their actions, and is more interested in making everyone toe the line, i.e., socialism.

Or so it seems to me.
richard mcenroe
April 23rd, 2012 @ 8:02 pm

About ten seconds after BO buys up the last of our bullets with the last of our tax dollars.
Adobe_Walls
April 23rd, 2012 @ 9:05 pm

Tribalism is not the same as racism, Jews and Arabs are Semites. Culture does not=tribe in general and particularly the way I used it. One could substitute chauvinism for racism. When I used the word “culture” I meant not just ethnic but also historical, economic, social and national experience. Germans aren’t wrong when they think that they are better than Greeks or Italians. The Germans are much better at the attributes and activities the Germans care most about. It was often remarked that “at least Mussolini made the trains run on time.” The only truly remarkable aspect of that is that it had never been done before and it took a Mussolini to do it. Europe can never be “a society” anymore than the western world is.
The varied nations of “Europe” never had a tradition of assimilation in the sense we have (had) and this is compounded by the fact that most the immigrants to Europe in the last 50 years brought their tribes with them. The unassimilated nationalities scattered about Europe from the “Volga Germans” in Russia to the “Balts” in Lithuania to the Basques in Spain have had separate identities for hundreds of years It’s not surprising that foreigners as foreign as the Muslim immigrants aren’t assimilating.
Back to my main point it simply isn’t possible for there to be a united Europe it’s just a place not a people. The EU regime can’t change that even if it succeeds in it’s totalitarian designs.
JeffS
April 23rd, 2012 @ 9:20 pm

I think we agree on the concept that the EU’s concept of a single “society” (or “tribe”, YMMV) won’t work in Europe because there are too many separate and distinct groups or cultures (which may be defined any way one likes) on the European continent.

This appears to be at odds with the leftie concept of multi-culturalism, where all groups are equal by bureaucratic fiat. Until one realizes that “multi-culturalism” actually means “cultural homogenization” in newspeak.
ReaganiteRepublican
April 23rd, 2012 @ 9:23 pm

I wish Sarko well and the FN offers real solutions to France’s life-threatening immigration overdose, trouble is tho the Front Nationale is more anti-NATO/American than Sarko, and more nationalist/protectionist/spendthrift economically… they’re really only conservative on cultural/immigration issues it seems to me.
Wombat_socho
April 23rd, 2012 @ 10:19 pm

I admit to surprise that the Flemish Menace didn’t crop up once in this post, even by implication.
Adobe_Walls
April 23rd, 2012 @ 10:53 pm

Que the boss?
Vincent Harris
April 24th, 2012 @ 2:30 am

Sarkozy isn’t forced to reach out to Le Pen, he chooses to do so and it isn’t working. That’s what we learn from the first round of the French Presidential elections. On immigration we essentially have three mainstream approaches towards right-wing anti-immigration parties. You have the Verhofstadt approach that fights xenophobes, you got the Balkenende/Sarkozy approach, which give in to the lePen’s and Wilderses. And you have the eastern european parties that stan up for immigrant workers while there are a lot of them in western europe these days.

Donald Tusk is for small government and budget discipline, doesn’t support Utopian national building abroad an stands up like a Robin Hood for migrant workers.
Dan
April 24th, 2012 @ 3:19 am

Mussolini never made the trains run on time. He made it illegal to notice that the train was late.
Adobe_Walls
April 24th, 2012 @ 9:46 am

“… stands up like a Robin Hood for migrant workers.” So he’s a thief.