Disaster in France-What Must Be Done Now

[Brad DeLong]

>Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>>Pushing through a 35-hour work week is neolib?  Jospin has been promoting
>>strong social clauses in the EU-- that's neolib?
>>
>>The reality is that the left parties actually did better than in the last
>>election, but the vote was so splintered that they allowed a conservative
>>and a fascist to go to the run-off. The far Right is taking power across
>>Europe and the US over the splintered factions to their left.
>
>Moral: Gore in '04! Right?
>
>Nathan, the splintering is in no small part the result of the 
>weakness of the soft left's message. It inspires no one - at best 
>it's just a lesser evil.

And the soft right doesn't induce splintering because of what... 
exactly? (OK, in the U.S. it did use to induce splintering because 
Perot hated the Bush clan, but it doesn't since the Republicans sent 
Buchanan on his mission to destroy the reform party...)

Brad DeLong


>Against that, someone with the passionate intensity of LePen looks 
>energetic and principled.

So you think LePen's vote comes from the natural constituency of the left?