The French Presidential Election-- Guest Post From Alan Grayson

En campagne aux États-Unis, Benoît Hamon rencontre Bernie Sanders

In France They Kiss On Main Street
-by Alan Grayson

The Socialists in France are conducting a Presidential Primary this week.  The first round was held last Sunday.  Remarkably, the candidate who espoused the policies that people believed would improve their lives actually won that first round.

Imagine that.

Notably absent was any discussion of the grabbing of private parts, or the use of private e-mail servers.  There was, however, a robust discussion of the right to privacy (or as it is called in Europe, “the right to be left alone.”)

Also a no-show was any debate about whether the candidates had paid taxes, or how much money they had received from speaking engagements.  There was, however, a vigorous debate about how much the rich should pay in taxes, how much pay French workers should receive for their work, and what their working hours should be.

The campaign was mercifully brief.  The first-round winner declared his candidacy five months ago, but the campaign really didn’t get underway until the incumbent President announced, just last month, that he would not be running for reelection.

The first poll after the candidates qualified for the ballot, earlier this month, showed former Prime Minister Manuel Valls with a large lead over former Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg and former Education Minister (for four months) Benoit Hamon:

• Manuel Valls 43%
• Arnaud Montebourg 25%
• Benoit Hamon 22%
• Others 10%

There were three nationally televised debates, all in one week (Jan. 12, 15 and 19).  During the debates, the candidates propounded the following agendas:

• Valls: ?
• Montebourg: ?
• Hamon: extend Social Security to everyone, at $950/mo.; reduce the work week to 32 hours; legalize marijuana.

Hamon won the first round of voting:

• Benoit Hamon 36%
• Manuel Valls 31%
• Arnaud Montebourg 17%
• Others 16%

Montebourg immediately endorsed Hamon for the second round of votes, happening this Sunday.

(By the way, please excuse the non sequitur, but Hamon’s Wikipedia page features a picture of Hamon with Bernie Sanders.)

So in less than three weeks, Hamon soared from third place to first place. What was his secret? He sketched out for ordinary people what he could do and would do, as President, to make their lives better. He convinced them that he actually would fight to make these things happen. And his audience, understanding the opportunity that comes with choosing a national leader, demanded substance from the candidates.

“Duh,” you say.  Isn’t that what elections are all about?

“As if,” I say.  Is that what our Presidential election just looked like-- no, what it felt like-- to you?

Elections ought to be a celebration-- a celebration of our democratic opportunity to choose leaders who will take action to improve our lives. Not a two-year-long dental appointment without anesthesia, with the pain so awful that it brings the entire tearful country to the verge of a national nervous breakdown.

I understand that it is not politically popular to praise the French, as John Kerry learned in 2004. Oh, I know-- they did help us during the Revolutionary War, and we fought side by side with them in World War I and World War II, but then les hexagones refused to join us in the war in Iraq. That prompted my former employer, the U.S. House of Representatives, to re-designate the French fries served in our cafeteria as “freedom fries.” Hah-- that showed them! (That, plus the 250,000+ American troops who returned from Iraq with permanent brain abnormalities.)

But let us give credit where credit is due. The current Socialist Presidential Primary demonstrates that the French know what elections are all about. Elections don’t have to be painful. In fact, they shouldn’t be. For the French, at least, politics is l’amour (love), not cheap display.

In France they kiss on Main Street,
‘Amour,’ mama, not cheap display.
And we were rolling, rolling, rock n’ rollin'.
-Joni Mitchell, In France They Kiss On Main Street (1975)

UPDATE: The French Berniecrat Won

Or, as the NY Times put it "France chose an idealistic, traditional left-leaning candidate in Sunday’s primary to represent the Socialist and center-left parties in the presidential election this spring." Benoît Hamon beat Blue Dog-type Manuel Valls with a clear cut 58.9% to 41.1% victory.