Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule

[HiPointDem]

89. i said "on the ascendant". perhaps you haven't been following recent elections. the error is to

think that there is an unchanging europe with an unchanging culture and social practice.


In this election, France’s establishment has embraced Islamophobic ideas to an unprecedented degree. Right-wing populism, once a fringe phenomenon, has been conquering the bastions of Europe’s political mainstream with frightening speed; even so, most observers failed to predict the extent to which anti-immigrant themes would shape this campaign. It’s difficult to know whether Europe’s populists are approaching the zenith of their power or will continue their steady rise. But one thing is certain: At no point in Europe’s postwar history has the far right’s influence been as pervasive as it is now.

Two weeks ago, in the first round of the presidential elections, nearly one in five French voters opted for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the extremist Front National party. Marine, who replaced her father, Jean-Marie, as party leader a little over a year ago, has donned a cloak of respectability, severing the organization’s ties to the most flagrant neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic groups. But the core of her appeal remains unchanged: It consists of hatred of Muslim immigrants, along with everyone else she considers alien to the French nation. Her tactic of giving racism a pretty veneer has clearly worked well. In her first run for president, she already gained a greater share of the vote than her father ever managed to muster.


http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2012/05/europe_s_far_right_is_the_true_winner_of_france_s_presidential_election_.html


In the 60s and even 70s, i would never have predicted the right turn under reagan, let alone the steady move to the right ever since. it is happening in europe, and for some of the same reasons.

it's been happening for a while, in fact. perhaps europeans are as clueless as americans were in the 80s.