I am so relieved that France re-elected Macron. It was scary to think that LePen, a Trump-double, would win—and the ramifications of that, globally. Thank you, French people, for being sensible. Now let’s see if we can keep Trump, LePen and the like out of any office anywhere.
What should be written on the above boat’s sail?
Below is a cartoon I drew before Trump was elected, and when I was first aware of Marine LePen as an active character in French politics (it appeared in Politico). They were both using fear to get elected, “peur” means fear in French. They still are using fear—fear of “other”— to get attention and votes.
But there is a lot more involved than I fully understand. Here is a good article by David Leonhardt in the NYTimes about how radical politics—here and abroad— are not going away any time soon. If we understand why it exists, perhaps we can battle it. And make the likes of LePen
and Trump sail away.
I realize that they won’t sail away, the metaphor is not perfect. It has to be an intentional effort.
Thoughts welcome.