Posted by
Bert Chapman on Friday, May 11, 2007 10:37:54 AM
Nicholas Sarkozy has been elected France's new president. Sarkozy represents the "conservative" side of French politics which really consists of the Socialist Party and a conservative in name only Gaullist party. This generally leftist ideological stagnation has plagued French politics since the beginning of the 5th Republic in 1958. Still, Sarkozy's victory gives some cause for hope. He has pledged to improve French relations with the U.S. which were damaged by outgoing President Jacques Chirac's opposition to the Iraq War which was motivated by Chirac's desire to maintain French commercial interests in Iraq and prop up France's buddy Saddam Hussein then from anything remotely resembling moral or intellectual principal.
Sarkozy has also made some positive signs on the economic front about opening up France's stagnant economy. He has talked about repealing France's idiotic 35 hour work week which is a major deterrent to productve workplace performance. Hopefully, he'll also have the guts to reduce the role of government in French economic life, cut spending and taxes, and get rid of the dangerously protectionist European Union's common agricultural policy. Sarkozy should also work to ensure that France's Muslims have positive incentive to assimilate into French life such as having the chance to get affordable housing and have high quality education and training to enter the workforce of a 21st century knowledge-based economy. Hopefully, Sarkozy will also weaken the secularist provisions of France's 1905 constitution which make it nearly impossible to intelligently bring personal religious views into public life.
France has been morally enervated by 20th century existentialism, socialist economics, and a leftwing intellectual culture in recent decades. To effectively combat Islamist terrorism, it needs to recommit itself to Western Europe's Judeo-Christian heritage instead of engaging in delusions about France's purported "mission civilatrice", quit deluding itself as being the Gaullist alternative to alleged American hyperpower, and stop engaging in the idiotic fantasy that there is a mythical third way between free market economics and state socialism.
Recently, British newspapers have said Sarkozy has the chance to emulate two relatively recent British Prime Ministers: Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher. If Sarkozy chooses to emulate Heath, he will follow in the pattern of groveling before European Union centralism, ideological mush, and socialist stagnation. If he chooses to emulate Thatcher, he takes the choice of supporting free market economic reform, principled conservative leadership, and standing firm against totalitarian evil. Hopefully, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan will be the inspiration for Sarkozy's upcoming tenure as French President.