The “Canyon” Between the American and French Right

The gulf between the American Right and the French Right has never been as big. Normally, the French have trouble understanding Republicans. Their justifications for the right to acquire and own arms (this is not the same thing as the right to bear arms), refusal to support national universal health care and opposition to the principle of a national identity card would stun Nicolas Sarkozy’s supporters, and even those of Marine Le Pen.

The events of the past few days in the presidential campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic have enlarged the “canyon” between the convictions and the values of American Republicans and the French Right.

I was listening earlier to a French politician defending the rights to free, anonymous and confidential access to birth control for minors. This position is unimaginable in the United States for a Republican and even for many Democrats.

As a journalist, I want my readers to let go of their instinct to find American counterparts for French politicians. Ron Paul is nothing like Marine Le Pen. Barack Obama is more right-leaning than Nicolas Sarkozy. We need to stop thinking that the Americans are crazy because they are not like the French. We should accept that countries with different cultures and histories produce profoundly different political candidates. I am shocked by the French superiority complex towards Americans, describing them as “big babies” or “barbarians” every which way. Just accept that we are different. Neither France, Europe nor America is the center of the civilized world. The world is diverse.

Not all political systems converge toward a “French model” that every nation dreams of emulating. I would also say the same thing to the Americans, “Stop thinking that the whole world wants to be like you.”

The most striking example of the distance between the two countries is the manner in which populism appears. American populism is primarily libertarian, favoring free enterprise, individualism, anti-taxation and decentralized government. At times it drifts into xenophobia and anti-immigration, but not always. It claims to be inspired by America’s founding fathers. It is the Tea Party.

This populism of the right does not exist in France. Supporters of the Tea Party would seem like extra-terrestrials in France. But if we just took the time to listen to their reasoning, we would better understand their worldview, however false or arbitrary it may appear.

But in the United States there is also a left-leaning populist movement that angrily denounces economic inequality. The Democrats have been trying to revive it for the past few months. The movement is less powerful, but the press, which is largely pro-Democrat, has helped publicize it. This populism is partly inspired by Europe. It is at the heart of the campaigns of several candidates in France today, both on the right and on the left.

The idea that a right-leaning candidate in the United States who wanted to raise taxes and invent new and cleverer taxes would be putting an ax to his campaign is unthinkable for us, especially in the tight fiscal climate we are currently experiencing in France.

The absence of a widespread debate in France about ways to reduce public expenses is also completely incomprehensible for a Republican. To right-leaning Americans, it seems that the French Right has too quickly conceded to the Left’s moral arguments: The state must redistribute wealth; private initiatives cause inequality; and if the rich are rich, it is because they have stolen their money somewhere.

Resorting to taxes not only to raise revenue, but also to take money from the rich, is called “social engineering” in the United States. It is an extremely pejorative term in the mouth of the average American, since it suggests that the American model is fundamentally false. Individual liberty and civic responsibility creates a social class system? The Republicans don’t want to believe it. But most of all, he wants to believe that to let the State correct these inequalities is the worst of all evil!