[lbo-talk] Sarkozy proposes measuring 'happiness' and 'well-being'to replace the 'cult of the market'

[Carrol Cox]

A "rightist" politician" pushes "leftists" slogans AND actions during
those periods when the government is afraid of the people. That might
happen a bit quicker in France. I think it was on this list when someone
passed on an anecdote abut two tourists, a French and an American woman,
talking about health care. The American woman asked, why is French
medical care so much better than American? The French woman replied, "In
the United States, the people are afraid of the government; in France,
the government is afraid of the people." That actually happened only
once in U.S. history, in the presidency of Nixo, as is clear from the
memoirs of many of those who derved high in his administration. He was
freaked out by the November Moratorium of 1969; then, as Haldeman
reports, he really sort of threw in the towel when just a hundred or so
demonstrators met him at Hohio State, the center of "Mid-America," and
the domain of his friend Woody Hayes. (So perhpas we in Bloomington,
Illinois, had more effect on the world than we ever dreamed. When the
local Republicans scheduled a banquet with Melvin Laird as speaker,
about a hundred of us surrounded the Masonic Temple, and they had to
sneak him in through the kitchen. If he reported that back to Nixon, it
would have had an impact: Bloomington is/was even more hick Middle
America than Colombus, Ohio.)

In any case, just look at the tremendoous 'prgressive' record Nixon left
behind, including a proposal for a minimum income in the form of a
negative income tax, plus  revenue sharing, plus OSHA, and so forth. And
he also inaugurated heavy repressive measures: The War on Crimd, etc

So I don't know what is going on in France but it is not at all
contradictory for the same prson to be "progressive" and a potential
fascist. Cf. Jerry Brwon in the U.S.

Carrol